Catfish: In Another Life
by Nitocolus
Summary: AU. Eridan forgets to sleep in his recuperacoon after being rejected by Feferi and splitting up with Vriska. The ensuing nightmares reveal some hidden romantic interests the seadweller might have for a certain catgirl. How do they choose to bond? The one thing they have in common: ships. Catfish fluff, multi-part, EriNep, minor spoilers. R&R please.
1. Chapter 1

Cold waves crashed into the shoreline, filling the air with a constant whisper. A lone seadwelling troll stood on the beach, just out of reach of the incoming tide. His glasses had flecks of saltwater on them, but he ignored them. Cleaning them would be useless. With a sigh he turned on his strikingly-colored shoes and began to walk back to his hive. His lusus - the faithful and noble Skyhorse - held its head up at his approach but returned to its rest as the troll passed.

Open the door.

Shut the door.

Grab a glass and two bottles - one Faygo, one whiskey. Troll Jack Daniels, Old No. 8. Vriska Serket's recommendation, unsurprisingly. He cringed at the thought, feeling his vascular system wince at the mere thought of her. He filled the glass with the whiskey, shot it back in one gulp then followed with a Faygo chaser. Grape flavored. An interesting, yet horrid taste in his mouth. Sighing he reclines in a chair, his striped pants stretching out to reach the foot rest. The scarf has ridden up the back of his head a little from his shift in position, but he doesn't mind. In fact, it feels rather comfortable - almost like a little pillow.

He closes his eyes for a bit. The night was emotionally taxing. He had made a red advance on his longtime moirail, Feferi Peixes. For years he had wanted to advance their relationship and be matesprits, but the feelings were unreciprocated. The rejection had hurt worse than anything and the entire incident had almost ruined their moirallegience, but in that moment, he had been just too pitiful. They had a feelings session, a deep and intimate talk that helped alleviate all their emotional baggage. They were both confident that they could make it through these rough waters - pun intended, both being seadwellers. As if that wasn't bad enough, his kismesissitude with Vriska Serket - a relationship that had been falling apart for some time now - had finally ended. He had tried to be a worthy rival, tried to get under her skin and into her head and to drive her insane with hate; his passion and commitment were admirable, but simply not enough. She left him with a smirk and not the bat of an eyelash.

Needless to say, the rejection of both his concupiscient interests in one night had left him emotionally exhausted. To compound his woes, he had fallen asleep in his chair and not his recuperacoon. He had managed to catch a few hours of shut-eye before the nightmares began. It was a surprisingly lucid dream. It seemed like he was watching himself live, but at the same time living it. He was on a meteor. All of his quadrants were broken. He saw Feferi - his beloved Feferi - with a _lowblood_, the bipolar hacker, Sollux Captor. There was a hollow rage in his heart, but his dream self was furious for some reason. Karkat Vantas and Kanaya Maryam, two of his good friends, were helpless onlookers. He raised his arm, wielding some sort of white... wand? The idea was silly. Magic wasn't real. And yet, he fired blinding white light at Sollux, slamming him against a wall. Mustard-colored blood flowed across the floor. The rest happened in a blur. Feferi, crying and then turning on him in rage. Killing her. Turning on Kanaya and destroying what looked like a matriorb. Kanaya attacking in a rage before joining Feferi on the floor. It was terrifying. He would never kill his friends! Kanaya was one of his closest platonic pals, and Feferi - well, the thought of killing her was unbearable.

But he didn't wake up. Not yet, anyway. He approached Karkat. An extremely-bloodied Gamzee Makara was there wearing Equius Zahhak's glasses and Nepeta Leijon's hat - and both of their blood. Vriska was there, too, wearing some ridiculous orange pajamas and sporting fairy wings. Before anyone could make a move, Kanaya appeared; a hole in her guts where he had shot her with the white light. Faster than thought possible, Gamzee was kicked in his crotch and sent off of a platform, Vriska was sent skidding across the metal decking from a vicious punch and the dreamer - the dreamer had his wand taken from him in his shock, broken before his eyes and was then sawed in half by Kanaya. His vision tumbled as he fell and he could feel the slamming of his back on the metal floor. He could feel the numbness of shock fade away into sharp pain before numbing again with something else. He could feel the cold metal at his back turn warm in wet. He couldn't feel his lower body. He could feel the life leaving him, and he could feel that all of his bridges had been burned. He could feel the hateful and judging eyes of all of his friends - dead and bloodied and broken - gazing down on him.

And then, thankfully, he woke up.

Eridan Ampora sat up sharply, knocking the empty glass from the arm of his recliner. It bounced on the floor but neither cracked nor shattered. Breathing heavily and in a cold sweat, Eridan checked his body for any signs of mutilation. Perfectly fine, physically speaking. His breathing slowed and he allowed himself to relax a little. Checking the time Eridan wasn't surprised to see it was about early day - he had slept for less than two hours. He couldn't go back to sleep, but there weren't many friends he could talk to at this hour. Fortunately, one of the trolls he wanted to talk to was up at this hour. Moving to the chair in front of his husktop, Eridan activated his Trollian and was pleased to see she was online.

caligulasAquarium began trolling grimAuxiliatrix at 5:00 a.m.

CA: hey kan

CA: are you up or did you just forget to log out?

GA: Eridan? Why Are You Up At This Hour?

CA: oh good you're online

CA: yeah I wwas just wwanting to

CA: I guess I just wwanted to make sure you're alright or somefin.

GA: Although It Confuses Me, I Appreciate The Concern. I Am Fine.

GA: Why Are You Acting So Peculiar, If You Don't Mind My Asking?

CA: I fell asleep out a my recuperacoon and had the most lucid fuckin dream I'vve evver had

GA: Oh My.

GA: Still, I Don't See Why You'd Ask About My Well-Being. If Anything, I'd Be Concerned For You. Are You Quite Alright, Eridan?

CA: relax I'm fine

CA: in the dream

CA: I killed you Sol an Fef.

GA: That Is Quite Distressing.

GA: You Must Be Unnerved To Be Contacting Me At This Hour And Checking If I'm Alright.

CA: to be honest I can't go back to sleep

CA: I reelly needed to make sure it wwasn't real

GA: It Was Just A Dream, Eridan. You Can Relax.

CA: it felt so reel though

GA: Eridan, Just Relax And Try To Go To Sleep. In Your Recuperacoon, This Time.

GA: You've Had Quite A Stressful Night From What I've Heard And Should Get Some Proper Rest.

CA: so Vvrisk told you about us?

GA: Naturally. She Is My Moirail, After All.

CA: nyeh

GA: Please Get Some Sleep, Eridan, Before I Start Worrying About You.

CA: alright alright

CA: leavve the wworryin' to Fef

CA: wwell if she's still up to bein my moirail

GA: I Have It On Good Authority That She Still Feels Pale For You.

CA: oh yeah?

CA: wwho'd you hear that from?

GA: That Isn't Important. You Should Get Some Rest.

CA: I think you made it up

GA: Go To Sleep, Eridan.

grimAuxiliatrix quit trolling caligulasAquarium at 5:14 a.m.

CA: fine fine

CA: I'll go to sleep then

CA: I'm just glad it wwas just a dream

caligulasAquarium quit pesting grimAuxiliatrix at 5:15 a.m.

Eridan did retire to his recuperacoon after that, making sure to change out of his clothes first, of course. It was an uneventful sleep, for which he was thankful for. When he woke up it was already well past dusk. Eridan bathed in his ablution trap and got dressed for the day. Same old long-sleeve. Same old striped pants. Same old cape. Same old rings. Same old glasses. He considered assembling his FLARP crew and sailing the seas of Alternia, but his FLARPing only reminded him of Vriska and he wanted to avoid that. It hurt less after that nightmare. The nightmare had shown him that it could always have been worse.

So he logged into Trollian to see what was up. Feferi was on and they talked for a bit. He told her about his dream and she assured him it was just a dream and she knew he'd never do anything like that to her. She was a little interested in the Sollux part, however. The two of them were friends, sure, but they hardly interacted. Not only that, but Sollux was in a steady matespritship with Aradia Megido. Eridan was already feeling better. He even played the part of a good moirail and humored Feferi for a bit as she complained about all the suitors that kept trying to fill her quadrants. Eridan was jealous. Trolls lining up to fill her quadrants and she's getting fed up with it? That was laughable.

Eventually Feferi logged off and Eridan was left with few choices on who to troll next. Apart from a few of his more loyal crew members (who didn't like talking to him anyway) the only one of his friends online was Nepeta. He couldn't help but sigh and massage his eyelids with his thumb and forefinger. Just thinking of the cave-inhabiting, hyperactive, roleplaying shipper troll was exasperating. Whenever they talked it was usually because they had no one better to talk to, and their conversations were usually a bit stilted. She thought he was a creep and he thought she was a lowblood. Granted she was a lowblood, but he didn't have to be so in-your-face about it.

Still, Eridan was feeling exceptionally friendly this night. It probably had to do with his dream or the fact he was overjoyed to still be on good terms with his moirail after the awkward rejection at a flushed relationship. In his dream he had counted Nepeta among his dead friends, and the loss had hurt almost as Feferi's and certainly more than Kanaya's. This was odd to him. Kanaya was a close friend. In fact, he had even toyed with the idea that when Feferi and him moved on to be matesprits, Kanaya might fill the pale void. She was always willing to listen and he had always said she was the one landweller he wouldn't kill. A sharp pain shot through his heart as he remembered killing her in his dream. Shuddering, he prepared to troll Nepeta before he realized she had already started trolling him while he was lost in thought.

arsenicCatnip began trolling caligulasAquarium at 9:48 p.m.

AC: :33 *ac appurroaches the rifur that hides the pawssage to ca's underwater city*

AC: :33 *purrhaps ca will grace her with his purresence this evening*

AC: :33 *ac patiently waits by fur his arrival*

AC: :33 (Are you there, Eridan?)

CA: oh sorry Nep

AC: :33 *ac is not sure, but she thinks she heard someone apologize*

CA: oh glub do I reelly havve to do the stupid roleplayin thin wwith you?

AC: :(( If you don't want to we don't have to.

CA: wwhatevver

CA: *ca rolls his fuckin eyes at this ridiculous situation*

AC: :DD *ac happily pounces on her furiend, ca*

CA: *ca pushes ac off of him*

CA: howw you been Nep?

AC: :/ ...

CA: oh my glub

CA: howw you been Nep?

CA: *he asks because a this fuckin wwriggler shit scenario*

AC: :33 I've been purrfect! How have you been? *ac asks with an adorable twitch of her whiskers*

CA: i'vve had better days honestly

CA: *ca says wwistfully*

AC: :(( Awwww, why's that? *ac asks while curling up in ca's lap. ac doesn't like to see her furiends sad*

CA: nothin reelly

CA: Vvrisk an I broke up an Fef rejected my flushed advvances

CA: *he said solemnly*

AC: :OO Oh my gog, that's terrible! *ac frowns sympathetically at ca's misfurtunes*

AC: :(( Are you sure you're holding up alright?

CA: yeah

CA: I mean I wwas pretty sad yesterday but then I had this nightmare

CA: actually forget I mentioned that. I'd rather not get into that mess a wwhaleshit at the moment

CA: *he said wwoefully*

AC: :/ You don't have to keep roleplaying if you don't want to.

CA: actually I'm kind a gettin into it noww

CA: *ca offers his first smile a the night*

AC: :33 *ac returns the smile warmly, glad to see her furiend is cheering up*

AC: :? What about a nightmare

CA: *ca sighs*

CA: I didn't really wwant to talk about it but I had a reelly bad nightmare cause I fell asleep outside a my recuperacoon

AC: :OO Oh no!

CA: yeah it wwas pretty fuckin' bad. I dreamt I killed Sol Fef an Kan before gettin krilled by Kan later.

CA: I'm actually not shore howw she managed to get back up

CA: I'm also not too shore I killed Sol either

AC: :(( That's a horrible dream! I'm sorry, Eridan.

CA: *shrugs* nyeh it ain't your fault

CA: I'm the idiot that didn't sleep in his recuperacoon

AC: :33 All the same I feel bad fur you. Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?

CA: wwell wwe could meet up an do somefin

CA: shit I'm sorry that came out wwrong!

CA: I mean

CA: if you wwanted wwe could hang out in person

CA: because I'vve nevver actually met you in person but I had this strange feelin about you in my dream an

CA: ok wwait I'm not sure wwhere that last sentence wwas goin or wwhy I sent it wwithout finishin it. my finger slipped an hit the enter button instead a the backspace!

AC: :/

CA: cod you must think I'm a real creep right noww

AC: :33 Only a little more than usual. *ac meows playfurry at the expense of her baffled furiend*

AC: :? What did you mean whehen you said I was in your dream?

CA: it's nofin

AC: :/ Eridan are you keeping something furom me?

CA: I

CA: in my dream

CA: wwell

AC: :/

CA: Gam wwas wwearin your hat an Eq's glasses

CA: an both a your guys' blood

AC: :OO That's horrible!

CA: hey I wwasn't in control a the dream!

CA: for some reason I wwas reel upset about you bein dead

CA: wwhich is wweird since out a all our friends you havve to agree the twwo a us chat the least a all. seriously wwe only interact wwith each other wwhen no one else is online

AC: :/ Yeah. I guess I noticed that.

CA: hey you asked

CA: all I knoww is that in the dream it felt like you wwere dead an after I died an I saww all a us dead an evveryone wwas judgin me for wwhat I did your death hurt almost as much as Fef's death

AC: :(( You died in your dream too?

CA: I think the only one's that didn't die wwere Kar an Rezi

CA: an Vvrisk but she got knocked the fuck out

CA: an Kan came back to life so...

CA: an I nevver actually did figure out if I killed Sol or if Gam survvivved the fall or not...

AC: :(( Please stop talking. *ac is very, very sad now*

CA: oh yeah sorry Nep

CA: point is I felt really bad wwhen you died an I told Fef about it an she thinks the twwo a us should hang out more

CA: like maybe the dream wwas tellin me that wwe'd be reelly good fronds or somefin. I don't knoww wwhy seein howw far beloww me you are on the hemospectrum

AC: :(( I thought you didn't care about the hemospectrum anymore?

CA: can you stop frowwnin? it's bummin me out

CA: an I mean I still care it's just

CA: wwell I havve more lowwblood dirtscrapin friends than I do high blood friends

CA: actually Fef is my only highblood friend

CA: Eq hates me professionally since I'm a seadwweller an Gam is

CA: wwell he's Gam

AC: :33 H33h33!

AC: :/ But your lowblood comments still hurt, Eridan. Frankly you sound like an ass when you say things like that :((

CA: wwhoa! wwhere is this comin from? you'vve nevver been this straightforwward before

AC: :33 You like it? Kanaya suggested I be more assertive to attract Karkitty 3

CA: an is it wworkin?

AC: ;33 Wouldn't you like to know?

CA: so friend-zoned I take it?

AC: :(( Yeah...

CA: yeah I been there

CA: for wwhat it's wworth I think you're swwell

CA: for a lowwblood landwweller

CA: *he said playfully*

AC: :33 H33h33!

AC: :33 Anyway, what were you saying earlier about m33ting up in real life?

CA: oh

CA: I don't knoww I wwas just playin wwith an idea

AC: :33 I think it's a good idea. I don't see enough of my furiends and it'd be great to m33t some of you in person, especially befur we have to leave Alternia to join the fl33t and efurrything :((

CA: reelly?

CA: I mean yeah wwe should meet up

CA: do you livve near a coastline?

AC: :33 There's a stream that leads to the coast nearby. Sometimes I fish from there :PP

CA: do you get seasick?

AC: :33 Well, I don't like water, but I don't think I get seasick.

CA: great! wwant to meet aboard my flagship?

AC: :OO You mean the ship you use to play FLARP with Vriska?

CA: please don't mention Vvrisk

AC: :(( Sorry

CA: it's alright an yeah it's the same ship

CA: wwhy? is there a problem?

AC: :33 No! I'm just excited! I've nefur been on a purriate ship befur!

CA: oh good

CA: I think I remember the coast you're closest to. Wwhen do you wwant to meet?

AC: :33 Hmmm. How about just after dusk tomorrow?

CA: swweepin in all romantic

CA: I like it

AC: :? Romantic?

CA: I mean like romanticism not romance

CA: sorry to get your hopes up Nep

CA: *ca says playfully*

AC: :33 H33h33, you're goofy! *ac waves her paw derissively at ca's antics*

CA: see you tomorrow then

AC: :33 Sounds good! S33 you then, Eridan *ac meows appreciatively in thanks before turning to leave* Bye!

CA: bye

arsenicCatnip quit trolling caligulasAquarium at 10:23 p.m.

Eridan sat back in his chair, slightly flustered. What the hell was up with all of his romantic slip-ups? He wasn't feeling flushed for Nepeta was he? His cheeks turned a violet hue out of shame and embarrassment. He tried to convince himself that he was being ridiculous and desperate. He was not feeling flushed for Nepeta! She was just the first troll he talked to after Feferi and all the romantic tension from Feferi and the heartache was making him crave companionship so he started trying to make passes at Nepeta as an attempted rebound. Yeah, that was it. That totally made sense.

All of a sudden Eridan felt his vascular system go into overdrive just thinking about Nepeta. Her kindness. Her loyalty. Her insufferable cat puns and how much Eridan hated to admit they were adorable. He had seen pictures of her too. Her filthy long coat and stupid hat. Her fingerless gloves and shoddy pants and those ridiculous shoes. Her shining eyes. Her messy, short locks framing her poorly-cleaned face, bare of any make-up. Her unique smile and those precious little fangs. Eridan felt himself itch all over as sweat spots started to form around his neck and beneath his arms. He ran to his ablution chamber and looked himself in the mirror: face flushed purple and lips trembling.

"Oh... cod." he muttered to himself.

Where had these feelings come from? He splashed water onto his face and dried off. Now was not the time to be freaking out. He had to get a few of his deckhands together to crew his ship. Flushed feelings or whatever they were, Eridan wasn't going to stand Nepeta up. He'd deal with the emotions later - right now he had to plan.


	2. Chapter 2

A lone troll stalked the forests. A distant trickling noise caught her attention and she immediately set off after it. The stream that she always came to for water and fishing. Following it while skipping about on all fours like some sort of majestic, prancing forest beast, she made her way to the coast to meet with Eridan Ampora. She smiled to herself. Today she would be meeting _Orphaner Dualscar_, the infamous gamblignant pirate, the ruthless violet-blooded mariner and cutthroat. She would be aboard _his_ vessel. Not Eridan's, but his ancestor's.

Or at least that's the way he roleplayed.

She had been surprised by his sudden want to hang out. He was right when he had said they only talked when no one better was on. When Terezi Pyrope, Tavros Nitram and her moirail, Equius were offline, she would still choose any of her other friends to talk to above Eridan, even Gamzee Makara. It wasn't that Eridan wasn't her friend, he was just a bit pompous and looked down on others. Even with Feferi's advice and his closeness to Kanaya - one of the lowblood landwellers he despised so much - Eridan still had a nasty habit of plotting genocide against anyone lower on the hemospectrum than himself and talking down to others even though they were friends. Of all his landweller friends, however, it was noted that he insulted Kanaya and Karkat the least - probably because they consoled him and gave him advice whenever Feferi was unavailable.

She reached the coast and stood just out of reach of the incoming waves. It unnerved her, but she was too preoccupied searching the coastline for the ship. It was becoming darker by the minute and she was worried that maybe he had forgotten or did not remember which coast she lived near. So she sat and waited, drawing shipping charts in the sand. Most of them were of her and her precious "Karkitty" and she felt her heart grow all bubbly and weightless just thinking about him. But the waves would come in and wash it all away and remind her that it wasn't meant to be. She wasn't stupid, and although she desperately clung to the shrinking hope of her and Karkat becoming matesprits, it was obvious that he didn't feel the same way as she did. In fact, she noticed how he acted when talking about Terezi Pyrope.

She heard something. The creaking of timber. The whipping of wind on cloth. The hush of water parting before a bow. She looked up and gasped at what she saw. In the moonlight she saw the silhouette of ship. It was large - larger than she thought possible. It was well away from her and slowing in its approach, but she could still make out the figure standing at the bow of the ship, staying perfectly balanced with one leg on deck and the other braced on the railing. His cape and scarf flapping vigorously in the ocean breeze and his glasses relfected the stars as he scanned the coast with a spyglass. She saw the spyglass stop on her. She smiled and waved. Her excellent vision made out him returning the wave. Within a few minutes the ship was at anchor and he had taken a dingy to shore with one of his seadweller crewman as his oarman.

"Eh boss, _this_ is the girl?" the grunt asked, quirking an eyebrow in surprise as he looked the cat-troll over.

"Yeah. Wwhy, you got a problem with it?" Eridan Ampora asked, standing tall with a sneer and a threatening tone to his voice.

"Uh, no Captain!" the seadweller stammered, "It's just-"

"Just wwhat?"

"Well... She's a landweller..." the seadweller stated awkwardly, "...and the crew didn't think you liked seadwellers."

"They're alright." Eridan shrugged, "An this one's cool."

"If you say so, Captain." the seadweller was clearly not convinced. They returned to ship shortly after. Once aboard Eridan introduced her.

"Listen up all you bilge-suckin scalliwwags!" Eridan shouted out with the same sneer he used to use to address all his friends. At once, all hands on deck waited patiently for their blowhard of a leader to continue, "This here is Nepeta Leijon."

"Hello everyone!" Nepeta beamed and waved. The crew looked at each other questioningly and then towards their captain.

"She's a good friend a mine, so no funny business. Understood?" Eridan demanded.

"Crystal, Captain." the pirates replied in chorus.

"Excellent. Noww let's get this ship movvin!" Eridan began shouting orders and Nepeta followed, unfamiliar with maritime protocol, "I promised Nep here a ride on a pirate ship an a night in the life a the best damn creww a gamblignants on Alternia! You wwanna be showed up by some stuck-up spider bitch?"

"No!" the crew chorused back with more enthusiasm and Nepeta was surprised to see them work harder.

"Oh come all you scalliwwags, sing along wwith me!" Eridan belted out a lyric and the crew immediately took it up. Chanting verses came from the dozens of cutthroats aboard, the lyrics rising and falling in a haunting metronome that left Nepeta in awe. So this was what pirates did everyday? Cursed and sang and sailed and drank?

"Wow." Nepeta breathed.

"Yeah, it nevver gets old, does it?" Eridan laughed to himself at the sight. Every troll aboard the ship was hard at work, chanting their mantra, and here he was watching over them with Ahab's Crosshairs in his hands and Nepeta by his side. He rolled that idea over in his head. Nepeta by his side. Blushing a little he decided to get a conversation going over, "You havvin fun yet?"

"I'm a bit overwhelmed by all of this, honestly." Nepeta blinked, her mouth still slack in awe, "But yeah, it's purretty pawesome!"

"You an your puns." Eridan turned away, the collar of his cape hiding his blush from the cargirl.

"You don't like my puns?" Nepeta looked a little crestfallen, "Not a lot of trolls do."

"I think they're kind a cute, actually." Eridan said hurriedly before turning away sharply, "I mean, like a lowwblood tryin' to lift somefin heavvy is kind a cute."

"Oh." Nepeta let out softly and Eridan just wanted to beat himself bloody for suddenly turning his compliment into an insult, but he couldn't take it back.

They sailed on for a bit, the two of them silent while the crew chanted and cursed and ordered each other around. There weren't a lot of ships out sailing in these waters. The jungle was famous for riches and glory, but infamous for its perils, so there were virtually no traders out these ways to maraud and thus few rival pirates to face. After all, if there was no booty, there was no point. So they had to travel to other waters. The seas off the coast of the jungle were also some of the calmest of all, so it was likely to be an uneventful cruise. Nepeta looked like she was keeping herself entertained just by staring at the majesty of the ocean, but Eridan figured an active troll like herself would quickly become bored with it and want something else to do.

"Hey Nep, let me show you my Captain's Quarters." Eridan gestured for her to follow him inside the ship.

"Your what?" Nepeta asked, slightly unnerved.

"Oh right, you don't knoww pirate jargon." Eridan laughed and winced at how that made him sound arrogant and then scolded himself mentally for even caring, "The Captain's Quarters is my owwn personal room aboard the ship. It's pretty cool."

"You want me to follow you... to your room..?" Nepeta asked, her eyebrow rising with every word laced with suspicion.

"Relax, wwill you?" Eridan scoffed, "Like I'd evven consider dirtyin myself wwith a landwweller."

"Well, from what I've heard, I guess you'll never be "dirtyin" yourself then." Nepeta stuck out her tongue.

"Wwhat the shell is that supposed to mean?" Eridan was startled by her attitude and beating himself up for using the landweller card again.

"You and Feferi being a sunk ship." the catgirl stated the obvious, "And she's purrobably the only seadweller even remotely interested in you."

"That's not true!" Eridan snapped, "I got plenty a choice seadwwellers to choose from!"

"Oh really?" Nepeta asked, rolling her 'r' as if she we purring. Eridan fought down a blush. Somehow her purring was such an attractive quality.

"Yeah, reelly!"

"Like?"

Eridan blanked. He was seriously messing everything up, saying all the wrong things and sending all the wrong signals. Not that he was trying to send signals at all, which was a completely different problem he should address. Now Nepeta was challenging him, in front of his crew, with this new "assertive attitude" Kanaya had suggested she take - yeah, thanks Kan! - and all just to impress Karkat. Eridan admitted Karkat was probably his second closest friend, immediately after Kanaya. He had helped the violet-blood out of a lot of romantic jams and debacles in the past and always gave advice in the most level-headed way he could manage, but still. What did Nepeta see in him? He was grouchy all the time, not to mention flushed for Terezi. Or maybe caliginous? It was hard to tell with those two.

"I'm waiting." Nepeta smirked triumphantly and Eridan felt his blood boil. He grabbed the nearest seadweller and embraced them before bringing them in for a passionate kiss. Several crew members quit working and stared in awe at the spectacle. Nepeta joined them, surprised that Eridan actually did have "choice seadwwellers to choose from". She was also a tiny bit angry at him for some reason. Eridan himself was surprised because the troll he was kissing on was not only not resisting - they were kissing back. He broke the kiss and let the troll fall out of his grip.

"That answwer your question, Nep?" Eridan smirked triumphantly. Violet lipstick smeared his lips and stained his teeth a little. Nepeta glared down at the female who had fallen and saw she was making a spades symbol with her hands. It made her feel less angry, but still angry.

"Don't you think that was a little inapurrpriate?" Nepeta asked. Again with the cat puns and the rolling 'r' purring gimmick! Why was it so alluring?!

"Wwhy are you upset?" Eridan sneered, "Jealous?"

"As if you pompous, arrogant hipster douche!" Nepeta snapped and began hissing. Eridan stood, wide-eyed at the outburst. Sure he had been being an ass - by reflex, no less - but even for all he did that response seemed a little too volatile.

"Uh, wwoww Nep." Eridan stood straight and rubbed the back of his head, "I'm sorry if I offended you."

"Well, you did!" Nepeta huffed before calming down a little, "I don't know how, exactly, but you did."

They stood there awkwardly before Eridan realized a few of his crewmembers were around them, weapons drawn.

"Wwhat's goin on here?" Eridan looked around, surprised.

"You're going soft on us, Captain." one of the crewmen growled.

"You brought a _landweller_ on our ship."

"Told us to treat her well even though she shows you - her blood superior - nothing but disrespect!"

"Then you go and apologize to her?"

"You're betraying everything you ever told us! Everything we stand for!"

"Wwhoa, guys, let's calm dowwn here!" Eridan held his arms up to defuse the situation.

"Throw them overboard!" one of the crewmen yelled, "Our leader's gone soft!"

"Wwait, wwhat?!"

"Oh no!" Nepeta looked utterly distraught.

"Listen here, all you wwretched wwelps!" Eridan roared and a few of the crew members closest to him backed away in fear, "It's alright to like landwwellers, alright? They're actually pretty fun to hang out wwith. An wwho cares that she's lowwer on the hemospectrum than me an still talks to me like shit? I deservve it for treatin her like shit. As far as I'm concerned, Nep is my equal an wwill be treated as such! My cod, don't any a you havve lowwblood friends?"

Nepeta looked at Eridan, wide-eyed. Who was this troll? It couldn't be the creepy, sneering, arrogant jerk she always knew and avoided. This Eridan Ampora was talking about equality and contradicting all of his previous rants and tirades. He was preaching the opposite of what usually threw about. Hate had been replaced with tolerance. No, he wasn't saying he tolerated landwellers; he was saying he embraced them as his friends.

"You kept punishing us for having lowblood friends, Captain." one of the crew members growled. Nepeta felt her recent awe vanish. That sounded more like the Eridan she knew.

"Oh yeah." Eridan gulped, "Alright, wwell I revvoke that! In fact, I'm orderin you to forget all that seadwweller supremacy hogwwash. Go out an find landwwellers an make friends, or somefin."

The crew exchanged confused and worried looks. Some were conflicted, some were angry and some were just blank with shock. One of them spoke up "What the shell got into you, Captain?"

"Not that it's any a your business, you mutinous leech, but I had an epiphany the other night." Eridan said and Nepeta knew he was talking about his dream, "Long story short, wwhat are the benefits a killin an enslavvin landwwellers? Nofin. Wwe can be friends wwith them, fall in lovve wwith them an fight alongside them under the Empress, or wwe can make them hate us, fight us an try to ovverthroww us. I mean, cod, they're still lowwer on the hemospectrum, but wwe don't havve to rub it in there face."

As Eridan gave his speech it was becoming clear he was talking to himself as much as his crew. Whatever effect the dream had had on him, it was clear that he was still going through the revelations of it all. All the sweeps of treating his true friends like scum while lauding a crew of cutthroats that didn't even like him. A few of the newer recruits would have hate-crushes on him, but after a couple days of service they began to hate him platonically. Nepeta was smiling at her friend's change in character and Eridan himself was smiling. It was all making so much sense! Why hate lowbloods? All of his friends were lower than him! Not only that, but he never thought to fill his quadrants with landwellers before. This was the most beautiful revelation he had ever had. He felt different, like the inspirational words of some revolutionary preaching love and equality were flowing through his mind. He almost felt like he could remember something from a past life - not his ancestor, Orphaner Dualscar's life, but more ancient than that - like from another time altogether. It was... beautiful.

"Throw them overboard!" one of the crew members shouted, "The Captain's think pan's been fried!"

Faster than either Nepeta or Eridan could react they were both swarmed by the crew, grabbed roughly and hefted into the air. Ignoring Nepeta's fearful screams of protest and Eridans growling curses and demanding orders, the crew threw them over the railing of the ship and cast them out to sea. Eridan immediately came back up and kept his head above the water, glaring at his erstwhile crew as they began sailing away. The seadweller he had kissed looked to be in charge and gave him a wink as she ordered the ship turned towards wealthier waters. Nepeta, however, was splashing viciously and couldn't keep her head above the water for more than a few seconds.

"Eridan!" Nepeta managed to splutter out as she kicked and swung her arms frantically for some sort of hold, "Help me! I can't swim!"

"Hold on Nep!" Eridan said before diving and gracefully approaching the drowning catgirl. Even though it had been a few perigees since he had last swam and he had his cape and scarf, he easily reached her, placing an arm beneath her kicking legs and the other behind her back and brought her to the surface, which was only an inch or two away. "There you go, noww quit cryin like a wwrigler."

"Th-th-thanks." Nepeta coughed out, her arms wrapped around Eridan for support. He was holding her bridal style while treading water with his legs. The water was still high up on both of them, nearly reaching Eridan's shoulders. Still, he was quite comfortable. He could swim for hours on end without getting tired. "Why is this water fureezing?"

"It's actually pretty wwarm." Eridan shrugged, "We are off the coast a the jungle, after all."

"It f33ls cold." Nepeta whined.

"Landwwellers." Eridan chuckled, "Anywway, let's get you back home before the sun rises."

The trip back was slow and silent. Nepeta was shivering clinging to Eridan and he was trying to focus on treading water to take his mind off of their close contact. They finally made it to the coast around 2 am. Nepeta jumped ashore and shook herself dry in a very feline-like manner, true to her character. She then proceeded to do a little jig, enjoying the feel of solid ground under her feet. Eridan, however, stumbled ashore and fell flat on his face, nearly breaking his glasses in the act. He had just swam through the ocean for hours, something he hadn't done for perigees, with only his legs and carrying the weight of another troll while fighting to stay above the surface. True, the seas here were calmer than most, but they were still rough waters. All of Alternia's seas were rough waters. Nepeta, satisfied with being back on land turned to thank Eridan and gasped at his unconcious form being swept gently by the push and pull of the tide.

Now it was her turn to carry him. She wasn't as strong as her moirail, but she was more than strong enough from sweeps of hunting to carry him through the jungle on her back. She easily cleared logs and avoided potential dangers on her way back to her hive with agility and grace that would have made Eridan's vascular system skip a beat at the sight. The sun was beginning to rise as she reached her hive and she absconded inside her cave with Eridan on her back. She stopped once inside and allowed herself time to catch her breath.

Nepeta took off her cat cosplay gear and her long coat. She laid them over a rock to dry out and searched for a fresh change of clothes. She made sure Eridan was completely unconcious and proceeded to change into one of her other sets of clothes. Being a cave-dwelling, wild girl, she didn't wear undergarments so changing was fairly easy. Off with her socks and her shirt. She grabbed a towel to dry off with and then stopped short when she heard screaming. Covering herself hastily, she turned to the source of the screaming and saw Eridan sit up straight, clutching his head and screaming in terror.

"Eridan!" she cried out, closing the distance between them and clutching his shoulders, "Are you alright?!"

"Nep! Nep!" Eridan started inhaling gulps of air, "You're alright?"

"Yes Eridan, I'm fine!" Nepeta assured her friend, "What's wrong?"

"I had a horrible nightmare!" Eridan confessed, "That the creww wwounded you an threww you ovverboard into the sea an I couldn't savve you an-"

Eridan stopped in his rant and blushed, his eyes fixated on Nepeta for a moment before flashing elsewhere - _anywhere_ else. Nepeta looked down and saw that her towel had slipped a bit and exposed more flesh than she had intended. Blushing she pulled it back up and secured it properly.

"So yeah..." Eridan coughed into his hand, "I had a bad dream is all. Nothin to wworry about."

"It was about me again?" Nepeta asked, surprised.

"Wwell, the last one wwasn't about _you_ so much as evveryone, but yeah, this one wwas all about you." Eridan admitted, embarrassed.

They sat there in awkward silence for what seemed to be the upteenth time that day. Eridan started brooding after awhile, lamenting over his lost ship and his lost respect. Nepeta still couldn't believe he had said what he said and stood by her, even costing him his vessel and his crew. She gasped as she realized something.

"Eridan! How are you going to get back to your hive?"

"My lusus wwill come lookin for me after a feww days an it knowws wwhere I wwent." Eridan shrugged, "Kind a."

"Oh, well..." Nepeta looked at the ground, "You're welcome to stay here until then. We can take turns in the recupurracoon."

"I don't need your charity." Eridan snapped back, though looked like he regretted it, "I mean, I don't need your help. I'm fine all on my owwn."

"Aw, Eridan, don't be like that." Nepeta smiled and hugged him from behind, "You're being such a sourpuss."

"Ww-wwhy are you huggin me?" Eridan stuttered, his face flushed bright violet.

"You don't like being hugged?" Nepeta blinked.

"It's not the fact you're huggin me so much as wwhat's squishin into my back." Eridan said. Nepeta blushed olive for a minute and reeled back.

"I'm going to go change." she said, quickly getting up and taking her clothes to another part of the cave that Eridan couldn't see. He stayed there, looking around at the cavern while he waited for her return. The place was large and - and he felt stupid for the observation - cavernous. She returned shortly, dressed in baggy olive pants and a black t-shirt with her symbol on it. No socks and no cosplay gear. She sat a comfortable distance from Eridan, still close enough that she could lean forward to poke him if she had the urge to.

"You're clothes are already dry." Nepeta noticed.

"Seadwweller clothes are awwesome like that." Eridan shrugged. He didn't seem very talkative, so it was up to Nepeta to try and strike a conversation. She smiled as she thought up a perfect topic.

"Have you given any thought to your quadrants, lately?" she asked, purring out the 'r's like she always did.

"Wwhat?!" Eridan looked flustered, "Wwhat are you sayin?"

"I'm just asking if you've thought about it is all." she shrugged, "I like to ship and - if you're interested - I can help you sort out any romantic pawsibilities."

"Nep, it's fuckin dawwn right noww." the seadweller sighed, "You should get some rest."

"Ac does not feel tired in the least." Nepeta beamed, walking around on hands and knees like a cat and lounging in Eridan's lap. "Don't you want to at least hear my ideas for your quadrants?" She was staring up at hime with shining eyes and that adorable little feline smile and was playfully swiping at his scarf. Eridan couldn't even answer, he was so stunned.

"I, uh," he stammered, "Shore."

"Yay!" Nepeta cheered, stretching out in the process before curling back up to her original position, "I think your pale quadrant is purrfect! You and Feferi are great meowrails."

"Wwell, that's reassurin." Eridan rolled his eyes. Was this the "good authority" Kanaya had mentioned the other day?

"For your caliginous quadrant, I put you with a lot of people." Nepeta stuck her tongue out playfully, "I'm sure you could get anyone to hate you if you really wanted to."

"Thanks." Eridan actually smiled a little at the compliment, "I might pursue that bitch wwho took my ship; she seemed interested."

"Yeah, that's the spirit!" Nepeta beamed, "Now for your flushed quadrant-"

"Nope."

"What?" Nepeta blinked.

"I don't wwant to talk about my flushed quadrant." Eridan said, "I... I think I'm feelin flushed for someone already."

"But Feferi isn't into you..." Nepeta frowned, "Or wait, is it one of your crew members?"

"Neither." Eridan coughed uneasily at his discomfort with the situation, "Can wwe just not-"

"Oh my gosh!" Nepeta sprang up, face to face with him and excited, "You have to tell me who it is! Is it Kanaya?"

"Wwhat?!" Eridan blushed, "No, it ain't Kan. I hadn't actually considered that." Eridan briefly spared a thought to Kanaya as a matesprit, but couldn't quite manage it. Nepeta continued hounding him anyway.

"It's not Karkat, is it?" Nepeta asked, worried.

"No!" Eridan sighed, "Kar an I are just good friends. Seriously, can wwe-"

"Tavros?" Nepeta asked. Eridan slapped his forehead in exasperation and grabbed Nepeta by her shoulders. "Eridan, what-"

She didn't have a chance to finish her question as Eridan pulled her in for a kiss. She was too stunned to react at first. Her lips trembled when his made contact. They were soft and gentle and he barely put any pressure behind the kiss. In fact, it was a little hesitant, like he wanted to make it a real kiss but was too afraid of rejection to take it beyond a little peck. Nepeta couldn't process it. It was warm and it sent little sparks off in her head and made her feel lighter than air. She relaxed into it, closing her eyes and deepening the kiss.

Eridan's eyes snapped open in surprise as Nepeta's arms wrapped around him and her lips pushed back. He closed his eyes again and enjoyed the kiss. It set off fireworks in the back of his head, made his head light and his internal organs melt. It seemed to last forever, their meager light kiss on the lips, and it was an eternity of bliss. They broke away for breath and stared at each other in surprise, faces flushed and breathing ragged. Eridan gulped. Nepeta was just so cute, so beautiful. Even though he was a highblood and had spent years convincing himself that that fact alone entitled him to anything he wanted, he could not help but feel undeserving of the creature before him. Maybe he had gone soft.

Suddenly Nepeta was frowning and tears were forming in her eyes. It broke his vascular system to see her in so much emotional distress - especially since he had caused it. He wanted to comfort her, but as he reached out to her, before he could even say anything, she slapped him across the face and ran off into the bowels of her cave, crying her eyes out. He sat there, gently touching the sensitive purple outline of her palm on his cheek. It would definately bruise. If he was the troll he was two nights before, he would have been outraged by the act, but now he was just heartbroken. He wanted to follow her, but knew he shouldn't.

She needed time alone to think, and maybe he could use some of that himself.


	3. Chapter 3

Nepeta sniffled out the remaining tears and heartache. She was angry and heartbroken and confused. She was confused because - for the life of her - she couldn't figure out how or why Eridan became flushed for her. They almost never interacted, and when they did he was always a jerk and she was fairly certain she annoyed him. Then again, wasn't it typical for trolls to cover their true emotions up by saying the opposite of what they meant? Nepeta hardly cared. She was angry at him for what he did, for how he felt. She was also angry at herself for kissing him back.

And she was angry that she enjoyed it.

The heartache stemmed from her anger. She hated herself for it. She was in love with Karkat Vantas, her precious Karkitty! And yet... When Eridan's lips connected with hers in that soft, hesitant peck, it felt like something she had waited for her whole life without knowing was finally delivered. It felt better than anything she had ever envisioned, even though it wasn't with Karkat. Her heart ached at the fact she had lost her first kiss to someone other than Karkat - to Eridan Ampora, no less. The fact of it all made her furious and a little sick and totally depressed. Sweeps of waiting for Karkat's affection, trying to win him over as her matesprit. Sweeps of convinving herself that it was destiny, that they were made for each other.

And then Eridan comes along and steals her first kiss.

It completely baffled her. She realized who it was. She realized what they were doing. Yet she went along with it. She enjoyed it. She betrayed her declaration of love for Karkat, her efforts of undying romantic loyalty. She betrayed Karkat and it was gut-wrenching to think about. She externalized the hate at Eridan, but she didn't really hate him. She hated herself for getting into it. She hated herself for enjoying it. She hated herself for giving up on her and Karkat. The sound of footsteps approaching caught her attention and she dried her eyes before turning sharply toward the arriving troll. Speak of the devil.

Eridan Ampora rubbed the back of his head and kept his eyes at the ground, only daring to look up at Nepeta every now and then. "Look, Nep..." he sighed, "I didn't mean to just go an kiss you like that. I mean, I did, but I wwasn't thinkin."

"Save it, Ampurra." Nepeta groaned out, pulling her legs up close to her and glaring at the floor.

"Are you mad at me?" Eridan asked, pouting slightly. Nepeta glared at the seadweller in the response and he turned away, hurt. "I'm sorry, Nep. You just kept houndin me about my flushed crush an you looked so cute... I couldn't help myself."

The catgirl tried to hold her glare on the violet-blood but sighed. "I'm not mad at you. I'm mad at myself. Downright furryous, actually." she confessed, but quit looking at her friend. She was making cat puns which was a good sign at least.

"Wwhy are you mad wwith yourself?" Eridan was taken aback, "You didn't do anythin wwrong."

"I lost my furst kiss." the cave-troll sniffled and Eridan felt his cheeks flush in shame, "And it wasn't with my Karkitty."

"Oh cod, Nep, I'm sorry!" Eridan smacked himself in his forehead, "I didn't mean to steal your first kiss like that, honest! I wwish there wwas somethin I could do to make it up to you!" Nepeta was surprised with Eridan's behavior. She expected him to say something like "You knoww you lovved it" or something equally arrogant and unsympathetic, but instead he was genuinely sorry. She blushed a little and kept her eyes downcast.

"It's not even that you took the kiss I was saving fur Karkitty..." Nepeta said softly, causing Eridan to quit his rant and pay close attention, "It's that I enjoyed it that makes me so angry with myself."

"You..." Eridan blanked, "You wwhat..?"

"I liked the kiss." Nepeta finally looked up, teary-eyed and blushing but smiling hesitantly, "It felt better than anything I efur thought pawsible."

Eridan stood there, mouth agape and eyes wide in shock. This was not what he had been expecting when he had finally decided to quit sulking on Nepeta's cave floor and had come to try and comfort her. He had expected cold shoulders, icy glares, hateful slurs, more slaps and hissing. He expected a lot of hissing. Instead, Nepeta was smiling and drying her tears and blaming herself for everything that was making her sad. He felt guilty and ashamed and couldn't stand to see her sitting in heartache that he had instigated, but he also felt warm and bubbly that she had enjoyed it. She had actually enjoyed his pathetic attempt at a kiss. The silence hung in the air for a bit as both trolls found different stalagmites and stalactites more interesting than each other. Eridan took a deep breath and dared to look at the other troll.

"You wwant to do it again?" he asked hestitantly, but winced and stared at the cave's distant ceiling. He probably just ruined any chance he had right then and there. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

"Ampurra, relax! You're not stupid, just... tactless." Nepeta smiled. Eridan blinked and realized he had thought out loud and prepared to make the same mistake before Nepeta continued, "I... It's late and we should really get some sleep, even if it's just a cat-nap."

"Oh, yeah." Eridan gave a weak smile. What was it now? It had to be almost midday at this point. "I'll just stay out here an try not to fall asleep, I guess."

"We can share my recupurracoon if you want." Nepeta gave a friendly purr and Eridan blushed a brilliant violet, "I can wear a set of spare clothes that already have sopor stains on them."

"Wwhat wwould I wwear?" Eridan asked, both relieved and disappointed that Nepeta had no intention of them sharing a recupurracoon in the nude. He was then embarrassed for overreacting and ashamed for assuming such a thing.

"I should have some spare boxers around here." Nepeta began searching through containers and dressers set up in her cave. Eridan wondered if they were in her bedroom or one of many closets. There didn't seem to be much in the way of a conventional hive set up in her cave, so it was hard to tell if there were any "rooms" at all. "Here they are!"

Nepeta tossed a pair of black boxers with the quadrant symbols arranged on them in diagonal collumns. Eridan caught them and blushed. They were a little big for Nepeta and Eridan fought down a blush as he pictured her wearing them. As a highblood he was used to females wearing fancier undergarments - frilly things with lace and straps that enhanced figure with comfort and support - and here was a troll that was practically feral. She was untamed, wild and highly individualistic. He fought the urge to smell the boxers - that was creepy even by his standards - but he wanted to. He suddenly craved her scent: wild and sweet, dirty yet clean - natural.

"Are you shore I should be wwearin your... uh... unmentionables?" he finally got out, clutching the boxers. Why was she wearing boxers anyway?

"H33h33!" Nepeta giggled, "It's fine. They're just clothes and I haven't worn those in a while."

"Oh, wwell are you alright wwith me wwearin them in the recuperacoon?" the seadweller felt a little relieved. It was like wearing a pair you hadn't worn in a few perigees or something. Totally cool. "I mean, wwon't the slime stain the fabric or somefin?"

"That's fine." Nepeta assured him, "I don't wear that stuff anymore anyways. It's not very comfurtable."

"Ohmycod." Eridan breathed out quickly while desperately fighting a blush from creeping across his face. He failed miserably. Just beneath the layer of clothing she wore everyday, she was complete nude. Eridan shook his head and calmed himself down. This is stupid. Beneath _everyone's_ everyday layer of clothes they were nude. Underwear hardly covered anything and hardly counted as a layer at all, so he had no idea why he was getting so worked up over it. "So wwhere do I go to change?"

"Oh." Nepeta hadn't thought of that. No one ever visited her hive, so she had set up the caves to benefit her, "I guess the part of the cave where I put the load gaper and the ablution trap is the most purrivate."

"I don't knoww wwhere that is." Eridan confessed.

"That's pawlright." Nepeta said, "I'll just change there and you change in here."

"Alright."

Nepeta left Eridan and traveled deeper into the cave. She knew the place like the back of her "paw" - every nook, cranny, twist and turn. On the way there she passed by her shipping wall and stopped, frowning. Dominating the entire wall was an adorable painting of her and Karkat kissing, a giant red heart encircling them with the words "OTP" and "Oh yesss!" standing out at its sides. She blushed, more in embarrassment than the shame she had felt earlier. She actually tried to remember why she loved her Karkitty so much. He was grouchy all the time, insulted everyone and pushed Nepeta away. Even she knew how obvious her advances towards him were and how uninterested he was. She knew that she had become annoying with her attempts and that it was pushing them further and further apart and it hurt her.

Then Eridan came along, completely disproved everything she thought about him being an arrogant hipster douche and a creep. Alright, so he was still admittedly a bit arrogant and a hipster and something of a douche. And he was actually creepier than she had imagined. He got flustered easily and was staring at the boxers she'd given him for an uncomfortably long amount of time... Nepeta's Moirail was similarly creepy, so none of his behavior unnerved her in the least except for the fact that it wasn't Karkat.

It wasn't Karkat that had wanted to hang out with her.

It wasn't Karkat that had saved her life and kept her afloat until they reached shore.

It wasn't Karkat that had fallen in love with her.

It wasn't Karkat that had stolen her first kiss.

It was all Eridan. The idea distressed her less than before. She had never had a troll take an interest in her before - she had always been pining for one that simply didn't feel the same way about her - and she had to admit that it felt incredibly flattering having someone want her like she wanted Karkat. It made her feel desired, attractive - even more so than it normally would, seeing how Eridan was typically self-absorbed and looked down on anyone lower on the hemospectrum than himself. Therefore, for him to be attracted to her, a troll pretty low on the hemospectrum, was even more flattering.

Nepeta smiled and walked past her shipping wall. She might repaint it later. She'd certainly need to after Vriska and Eridan's break-up. She reached her ablution chamber and changed quickly, storing her clothes on the counter near the ablution chamber for the approaching evening. She got into her pajamas: a pair of boxers she had quit wearing nearly a sweep ago and a black t-shirt with deep-set sopor stains from a recent failed attempt to sleep while dressed. She looked at herself in the mirror set into the cave wall and frowned.

What did Eridan see in her? She kept clean enough; unless she had been playing around - which she usually was - her face was dirt free. Her hands were usually smeared with blood and dirt and her nails had a fair amount of grime built up under them even though she had cleaned them recently. Her body was filling out, but slower than any of her friends; she was shorter than nearly all her friends and fairly flat-chested. She smiled and blushed as she remembered Eridan mentioning her breasts earlier; it wasn't a compliment and it was incredibly awkward, but it flattered her in hindsight. Her body was thin given her size, and nearly every bit of fat that she was growing as her body matured was being converted into muscle due to her active life of hunting and roleplaying as a cat through the jungle. As a result she had a toned body that she found rather unimpressive when compared with the curves of some of her other friends. Not that it mattered with the baggy clothing she wore.

Shaking her head Nepeta left the room and returned to where she left Eridan. Turning a corner she saw him with his back turned to her wearing the boxers she had given him. He hadn't heard her walking through the cavern. Even with the enhanced acoustics of the cave, Nepeta was light on her feet from sweeps of hunting and stalking prey, making her stealthy even when she wasn't trying. Rather than announce her presence, she decided to seize the moment. Creeping along the cavern floor on all fours, Nepeta stayed perfectly silent. Eridan was lost in her observation of the cavern roof, probably trying to penetrate the darkness just being on the rocks jutting from the ceiling.

She grinned playfully, preparing to pounce. Her legs flexed, her rear in the air, her arms supporting her weight. She shoved off with all four limbs stretched out in one graceful, quick maneuver that betrayed her experience. Arms outstretched, hands poised like the claws of a jungle-beast predator, her legs already coming forward in preparation for her landing, to make sure she landed on her feet, stable. To her surprise, Eridan had heard the gentle "pat" sound of her feet pushing off of the cave floor and turned around just in time for Nepeta to floor him. He hit the floor hard with his lower back and elbows, preparing to angrily cuss out his assailent until he got a good look. She was straddling him, hands on his shoulders, hair a mess and wearing nothing but boxers and a shirt. She was giggling and seemed completely oblivious to the situation.

"G33ze, Ampurra, you have better relexes than most of my furiends." Nepeta laughed, "You're the first one to efur turn around like that! Of course, you're only the third troll I've met in person."

"Th-that's great Nep." Eridan stuttered, "But can you get me off- Get off of me! Can you _get off_ of me?"

"Hm?" Nepeta asked, then noticed the position they were in. A light olive dusted her cheeks, but rather than do what Eridan suggested, she gave him a look over. Highbloods were very regal in appearance and very strong, in contrast to lowbloods being physically weaker but had strong psychic abilities and the balanced bloods in-between. Eridan was no different. His face was very aquiline, gaunt yet full, and noble in its bearing. His body was toned and scarred, no doubt from sweeps of extreme FLARPing, but even his worst scars were healthily healed and barely visible - the healing properties of those higher on the hemospectrum were looked on with both awe and envy by lowerbloods.

"N-Nep?" Eridan called to her hesitantly, confusion in his voice. Nepeta snapped back to reality and saw that her hands had begun to drift with her eyes. She'd gone from gripping his shoulders to resting her palms on his chest. Blushing, she immediately got off of Eridan and shuddered. This was not going in the platonic way that she had been hoping. Troll puberty sucked.

"We should get to sleep. It must be noon by now." she said. Before Eridan could respond she was out of the room. By the time Eridan caught up, she was waist-deep in sopor slime. She moved over as far as she could so Eridan could get in. "It's going to be a tight fit..."

Eridan rubbed the back of his head in discomfort, captchalogued his glasses and got into the recuperacoon with his friend. They both pushed as far away from each other and had their backs turned to one another. The sopor slime was putting them at ease, neutralizing a lot of their stress and making it easier to fall asleep. Both of them just wanted to got to sleep and pretend the whole awkward night never happened, even if it was only for a little while. Too many revelations were happening too quickly for either of them to process. All the same, Eridan didn't want the last few hours to ruin their friendship, even though their friendship had been an admittedly rocky and infrequent thing.

"Hey Nep, you still awwake?" he asked softly. After half a minute of no response besides the soft purring she did in place of snoring, Eridan sighed and continued to talk anyway. "I don't knoww wwhat came ovver me today. Evver since I had that nightmare, I'vve had these feelins for you I can't reelly explain. I just feel... attracted to you. Evveryfin you do is adorable, an evveryfin about you is stunnin. It makes my vascular system expand an shrink just thinkin about you. You're this swwell, untamed girl wwho livves like an animal, an as I highblood I should find that barbaric an unattractivve, but it's just so amazin because it ain't barbaric or feral - it's natural an wild an beautiful.

"I don't knoww wwhere these wwords are comin from, an I knoww I'd nevver havve the courage to say them to your face. They're reelly stupid, an I feel stupid for evven thinkin them. I knoww you're into Kar, an I knoww that after evverythin I say about lowwbloods an howw I treated you in the past you're right to reject me. I don't knoww wwhere all this lack a self-confidence is comin from either. I guess my rejection an break-up are bummin me out or maybe it's the nightmares." Eridan broke for a yawn and continued murmering as his eyes closed, "It hardly matters anywway..."

His snoring carried on, light and rhythmic and hushed, like waves hitting a rocky shore. Nepeta stared at the wall near her recuperacoon, wide-eyed and slack-jawed at what she had heard. She tried to rationalize this. Eridan most have been trying to use her as a rebound after Feferi rejected his flushed advances. She must have been the first single troll he talked to after Feferi, must have figured they were compatible because of their broken hearts and their loneliness (Eridan emotionally lonely and Nepeta physically lonely). He only thinks he's attracted to me, Nepeta tried to convince herself, maybe my playfulness is leading him on? The half-nudity, pouncing and sharing of a recuperacoon certainly did not help the situation any.

Yet, no matter how much she tried to convince herself Eridan was lying to himself about liking her, or was just acting like a changed troll to try and win her over, she couldn't bring herself to believe it. Eridan was genuinely flushed for her and she was conflicted. She was willing to admit she kind of liked him. He was handsome, intelligent and energetic, albeit a little narcissistic, but even that seemed to be changing with all the emotional trauma he had suffered in the last two days. She was willing to admit a small attraction, but she was not ready to explore it. Her heart was still mending from finally getting over Karkat. She wasn't ready to deal with new flushed feelings - not this soon.

Nepeta felt the sopor soothe her stress away and drag her into sleep. She knew what she should do. She would hang out with Eridan more. Make the most of the time he's trapped with her. Bond with him, get closer. Then, maybe she'll move on. Maybe they'll both see they're right for each other, enter a matespritship. Even if it doesn't work, it could only strengthen their friendship. It was a win-win, so it seemed.

Smiling, Nepeta fell into a mercifully dreamless sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Firstly, I'd like to apologize for the previous chapters. The grammar is terrible, the spelling is wrong in a lot of places and I was repetitive for some reason or another. I write these chapters infrequently, so sometimes I forget what I've done if I start up again. I'll go back and correct the chapters when the story is finished.**

Eridan Ampora woke. His neck and back felt a little stiff and he felt a little fuzzy-headed. He couldn't help but feel out of place. Shaking his head to clear out the fuzziness, the seadweller tried to stretch out but stopped when he noticed the dead weight on top of him squirm and mewl at the movement. Nepeta Leijon was sitting on his lap, curled up and head nuzzling into his chest just above the sopor. It suddenly made sense why his neck was so stiff; he was sitting with his back against the rim of the recuperacoon.

Surprisingly, he wasn't the least bit flustered at the situation. He felt warm in his chest, like a soft glow. She was so peaceful and at ease, purring contently and probably not the slightest bit aware of the position they were in. Eridan wanted to stay like that, he really did, but his neck was beginning to cramp up and he didn't want Nepeta to wake up, see how they were situated, see he was already up and assume he had shifted her into place while she slept. That would be awkward. So he gently, slowly pushed her off of his lap and into deeper sopor slime. As he stood, her head went under and gurgling ensued. Panicking, Eridan quickly jumped out of the recuperacoon, landing on the ground just moments before Nepeta's head rose above the surface of the slime, coughing and sputtering. She leaned over the rim and coughed until her throat was clear, sounding for all the world like a cat hacking up a hairball. Eridan cringed at her less-adorable feline mannerism.

"Sorry, did I wwake you?" Eridan asked nonchalantly.

"Ugh. Maybe." Nepeta rubbed her head. She accidently got some slime in her. That was just great. "I just fell into the sopurr slime."

"That sucks." Eridan laughed humorlessly before changing the subject, "Do you mind if I get my ablutions ovver first?"

"Go ahead." Nepeta crawled out of the recuperacoon, rolled over the rim and rolled onto the floor. She didn't seem to mind in the slightest, "I need to clear my head for a bit anyway."

Eridan stayed and watched for a little bit, worried, but left for the ablution chamber. Equiping his glasses helped clear some of the morning fuzz away as everything suddenly popped out in proper detail. He hadn't asked for directions, but he had seen the direction Nepeta went for the ablution chamber and noticed that the cavern was segmented and set up into distinct chambers. If he checked each of them, he'd eventually be able to find the one he was looking for.

"Wwhat in the brine-suckin fuck is a "OTP"?" Eridan muttered to himself after checking a particular room.

Drawn in by the use of romantic symbols and dozens of paintings on the cavern walls. He quirked an eyebrow. So this was the (in)famous shipping wall of Nepeta Leijon. Looking behind him to make sure no one had followed him, he began to look at the wall. The dominating picture of Nepeta and Karkat making out with dozens of hearts around them made Eridan scowl, so he ignored it and focused on the others. He was unnerved to see himself and all eleven of his closest friends in multiple possible pairings in every quadrant with notes and observations attached to each. The sheer magnitude of Nepeta's work was awe-inspiring, of course, but also a bit creepy. It also didn't help that everything on the walls was drawn with blood or some other improvised paint. The smell was tolerable, but contributed to the unsettling atmosphere.

Eridan ignored all of this and searched for himself. He found his columns and was eager to see who Nepeta thought he'd be best with. He frowned to see that she had paired him with Vriska as a great caliginous pairing. Pouting, he looked through his other quadrants for top suggestions. Feferi was his moirail, though there weren't many notes for why that should be, which actually frightened the seadweller. In his ashen quadrant, Nepeta seemed to push for Kanaya acting as his mediator. His brow furrowed when he saw Kanaya was also the top choice to fill his flushed quadrant.

"Cod, Nep." he muttered under his breath in frustration, "Wwe're just friends." Turning to leave the shipping wall and return to his original destination, he stopped short when he saw Nepeta standing a few feet behind him. "Hopy shit!"

"Sorry! I didn't mean to sneak up on you like that." Nepeta apologized, "I thought you were going to the ablution champurr?"

"I got distracted." Eridan said, gesturing to the wall behind him, "Did you paint all a that yourself?"

"Y-yeah." Nepeta smiled, blushing slightly. Her shipping wall was something of a rumor amongst her friends and she figured everyone thought negatively of it, "Do you like it?"

"Wwell, I'm not too frond a most a my top quadrants, but it shore is impressivve." Eridan admitted with a grin.

"Really?!" Nepeta brightened considerably. Sure she had hoped for a compliment, but she hadn't expected she'd get one so easily - especially from Eridan. She calmed herself a little as she remembered something, "It's a work in purrogress. I was actually going to make some changes while you were doing your ablutions."

"Wwhat kind a changes?" Eridan asked, surprised.

"Well... Mostly updating your quadrants." Nepeta laughed nervously, aware that that was a touchy subject.

"Oh." Eridan looked a little sad, but quickly put on his typical expression and straightened up, "Anywway, I'vve got ablutions to take." Nepeta nodded and stood aside so Eridan could pass.

After he left, Nepeta turned her attention to the shipping wall with a frown. She had always been a tad embarrassed of her life's work, especially her OTP picture. Due to recent changes, the OTP drawing had gone from a constant source of heart-flutters to a glaring reminder of shame and heartache. She would have to take it down, clear her head and try to devise a new OTP. Maybe she should look to one of her other quadrants instead? Her pale quadrant was perfect. Ashen-wise, she could probably find two of her friends to mediate between, though it seemed unlikely. She rarely hated anyone, let alone romantically.

Sighing, the catgirl troll began painting over the drawing of her and Karkat. Within a few minutes of laying down broad strokes, the painting disappeared beneath a layer of paint that matched the cavern walls. Nepeta stepped back and admired the wall. Blankness stared at her where her most prized pairing had stood. Her heart ached slightly at the sight, but it had dulled considerably. Where there was once a searing, tear-inducing pain, there was now a hollow sense of loss. This new feeling, although not as potent, permeated her being dramatically. It cut deep into her heart and stayed there, not making her cry but ruining her usually-chipper demeanor.

She focused on adjusting Eridan's caliginous quadrant. Sollux had griped about Eridan in the past, and Eridan never spoke highly of the hacker, so she figured that that pairing had the best chance at black feelings. After doodling Sollux into Vriska's place, Nepeta smiled, already feeling all the spades in the air and imagining the passionate hate the two trolls would share. Of course, there was no guarantee that they would ever meet up or duel, let alone fill a pail, but the idea of romance and passion always appealed to Nepeta and she loved indulging her fantasies. But there was still the matter of finding a new OTP to fill in the glaring blankness on her wall. She couldn't find herself being passionate about any other pairing.

The hushed roar of water had stopped from the ablution chamber, signalling that Eridan was done. Nepeta looked down at herself and cringed. She was wearing old, dirty clothes that now had a fresh coating of blood and paint and sopor smeared over them. A feeling of self-loathing began to claw at the back of her mind. She was a filthy, cave-dwelling troll that acted like an animal; no wonder Karkat didn't like her. She saw a drop of olive liquid hit her hands as she stared at them and realized she was crying. She heard approaching footsteps and quickly tried to wipe the tears away, turning towards Eridan as he walked in and putting on a fake smile.

"Hey Ampurra!" she beamed. His clothes, even though he had worn them the day before, were neat and clean, his scarf and cape resting around his shoulders regally.

"Hey Nep..." Eridan replied hesitantly, wondering why her face was smeared with blood. Normally it would disgust him, such a feral thing, but something about blood on her face was enticing. Actually, it made him smile.

"I should purrobably take my ablutions now." Nepeta said, beginning to head that way.

"Probably." Eridan shrugged, "By the wway, Nep, this wwas fun. Wwe should hang out again sometime."

"Really?" Nepeta turned her attention back to the seadweller, surprised he'd want to hang out with her again. Even if he was trying to use her to fill his quadrants, it was thanks to her that he lost his ship, his crew and their respect. Then, suspicious, she asked "Why?"

"I knoww I said an did some things yesterday that wwere questionable an suggestivve, an I still apologize for stealin your first kiss an all, but to be honest, I reelly like hangin out wwith you." Eridan explained, "I also havven't hung out wwith anyone this long besides Vvrisk an Fef or my creww."

"We've only hung out a few hours." Nepeta pointed out.

"Yeah..." Eridan coughed in his hand. Yet another awkward silence followed before Nepeta perked up.

"I like your idea." the catgirl remarked, "I haven't hung out with any other troll this long, either."

"Uh, cool." the violet-blood smiled, "Maybe wwe should do somethin you'd like to do, since my thing... didn't go so wwell."

"Uh... sure." Nepeta smiled, but looked down in concentration. Few people had hung out with her, and besides Equius, there was no one that asked what she wanted to do. She wasn't used to making such a decision; after all, what did she do that Eridan liked to do? "We could go on the hunt!" she suggested, hands poised like claws and teeth bared. To her surprise, Eridan smiled.

"That sounds great, actually."

"Fur real?" Nepeta was flabbergasted.

"A course." Eridan nodded, "I hunt lusi all the time to feed Fef's lusus."

"Oh yeah." Nepeta vaguely recalled him saying something about that. A new, more worrisome thought occurred. "What about Fef's lusus? If you're gone, won't she... glub?"

"Nyeh, I wwouldn't wworry about it." Eridan waved a hand dismissively, "Fef can hunt a feww lusi herself wwithout my help."

"If you say so, you're purrobably right." Nepeta smiled, "When do you want to do it?"

"Today, actually." Eridan smirked.

"That's right... I furgot you're stuck here fur a few days."

"I hope it's not too much a a burden." Eridan said, though his suggested he didn't care one way or the other.

"It's not, I purromise!" Nepeta said, "I'm going to take my ablutions now."

"Alright. Oh, an Nep?"

"Yes?"

"Do you mind if I use your husktop reel quick to check my Trollian?" Eridan asked, "I doubt anyone tried to talk to me, but, you nevver knoww."

"Sure thing, Eridan!" Nepeta beamed, secretly relieved. She was worried that he might try to sneak a peak of her while she was in the chamber, but was grateful that Eridan's character held truer than she originally thought. Then she felt slightly ashamed for doubting her friend.

After Nepeta left for her ablutions, Eridan readied Nepeta's husktop and logged into his Trollian. There were no new messages for him, unsurprisingly, but several of his friends were logged on. Eridan figured he'd talk to his moirail first, seeing as he had a lot on his mind at the moment.

caligulasAquarium began trolling cuttlefishCuller at 11:39

CA: hey fef you there?

CC: -ERIDAN! 38D

CC: I've been looking -EV-ERYW) (-ER-E for you!

CA: yeah sorry about that

CA: ivve been hangin wwith nep

CC: You took my advice 38O

CA: yeah wwhy wwouldnt i?

CC: I'm just surprised you actually went t) (roug) ( wit) ( it is all.

CC: You never were muc) ( for socializing 38/

CA: yeah dont remind me

CA: by the wway i could use some advvice

CC: O) (?

CA: last night i got throwwn off a my owwn ship for defendin nep

CC: O) ( my glub!

CC: T) (at's ) (orrible!

CA: yeah no shit

CA: an that aint evven the part i need advvice about

CA: i swwam nep back to land an she carried me to her hivve

CA: through an awwkwward string a evvents i wwon't go into detail on, wwe shared a recuperacoon wwearin her boxers

CA: oh an i stole her first kiss

CA: fef?

CA: you still there?

CC: Sorry, I'm just... so OV-ERW) (-ELM-ED rig) (t now.

CC: T) (at's a lot to process. You stole ) (er first kiss?!

CA: wwell i didnt knoww it wwas her first kiss!

CA: an besides she said she liked it

CC: 38O

CA: not only that but she wwants to hang out again

CA: wwe're supposed to be goin on a hunt later tonight

CC: O) ( my glub, I'm so ) (appy for you! 38)

CC: You two are going on a date!

CA: wwhoa wwait a minute

CA: wwhat makes you think this is a date

CC: Eridan, you just told me you gave up your s) (ip for ) (er, STOL-E ) (er first kiss, s) (ared a recuperacoon and s) (e still wants to ) (ang out wit) ( you 38/

CC: I'm PR-ETTY s) (ore t) (is counts as a date 38P

CA: oh cod i think you might be right

CA: oh shit wwhat do i do?

CC: W) (y are you freaking out? I t) (oug) (t t) (is is w) (at you wanted?

CA: wwell yeah kind a

CA: only i wwasnt expectin it to go quite so

CA: im not evven shore wwhat to call this mess a fuckall

CC: -ERIDAN! Relax and be yourself.

CC: You've made QUIT-E a few positive c) (anges in t) (e past two days, and clearly Nepeta likes t) (e new you.

CC: Just follow t) (e course your swimming and I'm s) (ore everyt) (ing will turn out perfect 38D

CA: thanks fef

CA: youvve helped put my think pan at ease for a feww

CC: Anytime 38)

CC: By t) (e way, could you bring back some of w) (at you find on your ) (unt?

CC: My lusus is getting ) (ungry 38(

CA: shore thin fef

CC: I'll try and fis) ( ) (er some glub, but I'm not quite as good at it as you, -ERIDAN 38)

CA: fef you can more than handle yourself out there

CA: but ill be shore to bring back a heap a meat for her

CC: ) (ee ) (ee!

CC: Good luck on your date 38D

CA: wwhatevver

caligulasAquarium quit trolling cuttlefishCuller at 11:50

Eridan didn't feel like trolling any of his other friends, so he logged out of Trollian, put the husktop on standby and set to looking around Nepeta's "improved" shipping wall. The portrait of Karkat and Nepeta was gone, which cheered Eridan up a bit. He wished she had replaced it with a picture of him in his place but knew he was getting ahead of himself. Eridan could acknowledge he was flushed for Nepeta, but he still wasn't sure if she was flushed for him. She had enjoyed the kiss, certainly. She had let him stay with her. She was even willing to continue hanging out with him, even though he was sure his presence was something of a burden. Shrugging, Eridan looked at his new suggested black quadrant, the only thing changed. A chill went down his spine.

"Sol..." he muttered. Hadn't he had a passionate hatred for the mustard-blood in his dream? Didn't he kill - or at least try to kill - Sollux in the dream? Eridan stepped away from the wall. He needed to clear his head; maybe get on Trollian and chat with Feferi or one of his other friends. Grabbing the husktop, Eridan logged back into Trollian and was immediately bombasted by messages.

twinArmageddon began trolling caligulasAquarium at 11:58

TA: we're all dead

TA: every one of u2 ii2 fuckiing dead

TA: we didn't even know iit

TA: the voiice2 of the iimiinently-decea2ed are growiing 2o loud now that iit hurt2

TA: ii can hardly 2tand it!

TA: ii 2hould have li2tened a 2weep ago!

TA: ii 2hould have downloaded the game and we 2hould have played and ii know mo2t of u2 would have diied but iit would have been better than thii2!

TA: oh gog

TA: iit2 happeniing 2oon

TA: ii can 2ee iit

TA: iit2 happeniing toniight

twinArmageddon quit trolling caligulasAquarium at 12:01

caligulasAquarium began trolling twinArmageddon at 12:09

CA: sol wwhat in the glubbin fuck are you goin on about?

CA: sol?

caligulasAquarium quit trolling twinArmageddon at 12:12


	5. Chapter 5

Eridan sat back, sneering but unnerved. Eridan still wasn't fond of the psychically-gifted trolls, specifically because their powers unnerved him immensely. Sollux occasionally went on spiels of doom and destruction, citing his "vision twofold" and how he was plagued with the voices of the imminently-deceased. A sweep ago - so Eridan was told by Karkat - Sollux was considering downloading a game for the twelve trolls to play together that would "save their race", but through a string of conversations and bipolar moments, Sollux decided against it. It was never brought up again until now.

Nepeta was back in the room. Eridan, even in his distracted state, was beginning to pick up the soft padding she made on the cave floor from a youth spent stalking the jungles. She was wearing her usual attire, including her feline cosplay gear.

"Are you ready Ampurra?" Nepeta asked, smiling. She had relieved herself some with the relaxing pattering of the ablution trap. For hating water, she enjoyed her ablutions.

"As ready as I'll evver be, Nep." Eridan forced a smile.

"Are you alright?" Nepeta asked, "You look a little pale."

"I'm fine, Nep, honest." Eridan waved his hands dismissively, "Noww let's get huntin."

Both of them exited Nepeta's cave. It was the dead of night, black and starless. The jungle was alive with the clicking of insects and the occasional snap of branches. Both trolls had their weapons drawn. Nepeta prawled on all fours, crawling across logs, perking her ears at sounds, staying still and watching at movement, pouncing when prey presented itself. She was graceful, animal-like, and deadly-efficient. Within an hour she had killed more than a few small creatures - potential lusi for various trolls. Eridan, on the other hand, was not used to the jungle at all. Where Nepeta moved without a problem, even in her oversized coat, Eridan's cape and scarf kept snagging on branches and logs. He had to captchalogue his weapon often so he could use his arms to help in climbing logs.

"G33ze, Mr. Ampurra, you're not used to the jungle, are you? Nepeta giggled. Eridan wanted to bite back with an insult and put her in her place, but her giggle and friendly demeanor - and his newfound flushed emotions for her - made him think twice.

"About as much as you are wwith the ocean, Nep." Eridan smirked with a small sense of triumph when he saw Nepeta quit laughing and blush in embarrassment.

"I don't see you purrading around with any kills yet." Nepeta returned to the seat of victory in their little argument. Eridan, flustered, resigned, mumbling about how the stupid environment was throwing him off.

"Just you wwait, Nep." Eridan laughed, "Wwhen the big game comes out, I'll showw you wwho's the top hunter is."

"Wait, do you hear that?" Nepeta quit their friendly arguing as one of the ears on her hat twitched in response to something. Eridan was curious as to how the hat could do that, or how Nepeta could hear anything through her hair and hat, but he chose to ask the more obvious question.

"Wwhat? I don't hear anythin."

"Exactly."

Eridan raised an eyebrow and strained to listen more intently to the jungle. It was silent. Dead silent. Not even the crickets were making noise. Eridan tensed up, bringing his rifle to bear. Nepeta's claws were unsheathed and she stood ready to pounce. A small sound came from the jungle and they immediately turned their direction to that point. It was pitch black beneath the canopy of tree leaves. The trolls strained their eyes to get a better look into the darkness when they both, simultaneously, felt an incoming presence from behind and jumped out of the way. Eridan rolled and slid while Nepeta performed some sort of acrobatic fucking pirouette out of there. Where they had stood, a large bipedal monstrosity with large horns bisecting its flat head stumbled to a stop, realizing it had missed its prey.

"Here's your big game, Ampurra." Nepeta joked, though her expression was serious.

"Nyeh." Eridan grunted dismissively while taking aim and firing quickly.

The darkness of the jungle vanished as Ahab's Crosshairs let loose a blast of blue energy nearly as tall as Eridan stood. The seadweller roared with his weapon, the force of the blast trying to force him back, but he stood his ground with sweeps of practice. The creature, surprised by the blast, attempted to dodge but was still struck in the shoulder. The force of the blast sent it spinning away, trying to catch its balance before falling to the ground with a massive thud. Wounded, but still alive, it tried to stand again.

"AC pounces onto the wounded beast!" Nepeta growled, pouncing and digging her claws into the creature's thick flank.

The creature let out a roar of pain and tried to reach for Nepeta as she clawed her way through its side, creating large lacerations that gushed large amounts of indigo blood. Indigo blood was an indication that the beast would have exceptional strength. Eridan watched as it nearly grabbed Nepeta, but she slashed its wrist and kicked the arm away from her before swinging herself over onto the creature's back. Eridan watched, mouth agape, as Nepeta perched herself onto the creature's back, the creature heaving and shuddering and struggling to get her off. Flipping her head to get loose locks of hair out of her eyes, indigo blood smeared across her face and clothing, Nepeta dug her claws deep into the flesh between the creature's head and body. It let out a pained howl that was accented with a disturbing cracking noise as Nepeta's claws broke through its spine. The creature fell, dead - a short spurt of indigo blood sprayed across Nepeta's face before simply leaking down its side and pooling next to its head.

"AC takes a moment to purroudly inspect her kill." Nepeta said, panting slightly. She was a little flushed from the exertion of the kill, but happy all the same.

Eridan stood by, silent and mesmerized, his clothing speckled with droplets of indigo blood from the kill. Nepeta removed her hat, swept her blood-and-sweat-filled hair out of her eyes and began licking the blood from her claws. It was an utterly barbaric image, and yet it made Eridan's vascular system stop. She was wild and graceful, a free spirit untouched by troll society or politics, and yet she was a killer, a predator. Eridan admired her ability, her strength, her grace and - admittedly with some perversion - her flexibility. She noticed he was staring and smiled.

"Do I have something on my face?" she asked, sticking her tongue out, fully aware that she was practically soaked in blood. Eridan shook out of his daze a bit, but before he could answer, his gaze shifted and he brought his weapon up again, aiming directly at Nepeta. She stood, shocked.

"Hit the deck, Nep!" Eridan growled.

She immediately obeyed, her shock disappearing in a wave of fear. She felt searing heat just above her. It ended in with a shrill death screech, the explosion of air being sucked into the vacuum created by Ahab's Crosshairs' blast and the thump of some massive creature falling to the ground. Nepeta waited a few seconds before getting up, her ears ringing slightly from the proximity of the blast. Eridan was standing over her, smirking in triumph, rifle smoking. She looked behind her to where he was staring.

"Mine's bigger." Eridan laughed. Nepeta felt her hair raise a little at the slight against her, but she couldn't argue. Eridan's kill was nearly twice the size of hers and he had killed it in one shot.

"Lucky shot, Ampurra." she growled slightly. Eridan offered her a hand and she took it, her mood changing quickly. "Your glasses are purrety messy." she laughed, taking the glasses from his face and using her long sleeve to clean them off.

"Hey!" Eridan exclaimed, before the glasses were placed back on his face, spotless, "Oh, uh, thanks Nep."

"No purroblem!" Nepeta beamed. She turned towards their mutual prey, scratching her cheek in thought. "Now, how are we supawsed to move these?"

"I thought you had a method for that." Eridan said, surprised, "I mean, don't you take big game down often or somethin?"

"I nefur nabbed two of them at once!" Nepeta explained, "Plus Pounce de Leon usually helps me bring large kills in."

"Wwell, howw are wwe supposed to movve these stinkin corpses?" Eridan felt himself grow impatient when Nepeta only shrugged in reply. He sighed and grabbed one of the arms of the larger kill. "Let's just take the larger one back, then."

"It would be rather impawsible to take both of them back, wouldn't it?" Nepeta frowned, but moved up to help her seadwelling friend.

The trip back to her cave was largely uneventful. The corpse attracted a few scavengers, but they could only get away with small chunks of flesh before being scared off by the trolls. They passed small banter, bragging about their respective kills playfully, but also giving appropriate praise for the other's accomplishment. Eridan, especially, lauded Nepeta for her kill. It was no small feat taking down an exceptionally large beast with claws alone. In fact, the violet-blood was jealous - though he'd never admit it to her, or anyone else. The last stretch of the journey was in silence as both trolls explored their thoughts.

Eridan was conflicted on his flushed feelings for Nepeta. He'd already laid his cards out on the table - it should have been obvious to Nepeta, especially after stealing her first kiss, that the seadweller was horns-over-heels for her, yet she didn't even acknowledge it. It was as if she had cried over her lost first kiss then completely forgot about the romantic tension. At the very least, Eridan had expected a no; he had expected some sort of rejection or confirmation, something to let him know how she felt. Instead, Nepeta was content to act as if the whole thing had never happened. Just as wwell, he figure, wwhat wwould she wwant wwith a ass like me anywway?

However, Nepeta hadn't forgotten about the kiss or the romantic tension. The kiss had been replaying in her mind ever since it had happened the other morning. It had been the single greatest thing in her existence, yet had made her further question everything she knew. She had already been questioning everything she knew, but the kiss had sent her over the edge and into a world of turmoil. Nepeta was sure she was over Karkat, and she was sure Eridan's feelings for her were genuine, even though he hadn't tried to make a pass at her all night. Then she remembered his late-morning, sopor-induced love confession. It was so sincere and sweet, and surprisingly poetic considering his exhaustion and the effects of the sopor. Of course, he probably didn't remember any of it thanks to the sopor - Nepeta was surprised that she remembered it so well.

They entered her cave and dropped the carcass in her living space. Scavengers wouldn't bother it now that it was in Pounce de Leon's territory. The young trolls reclined in her living chamber and relaxed. Eridan removed his cape and scarf in an effort to cool off - the exertion of carrying to carcass all the way to Nepeta's hive mixed with the jungle heat was making it a nightmare to wear his usual accessories. Nepeta likewise removed her hat and coat. Silence filled the chamber as neither troll could come up with a discussion topic and both of them ended up just staring at each other to pass the time. They didn't even realize they were doing it until Eridan blinked, then they both looked away, blushing.

"You did great out there, Ampurra." Nepeta said after a moment, still avoiding looking at the seadweller, "Feferi's lusus will love the meal."

"Thanks, I'm shore she wwill." Eridan replied, sneaking the occasional wary peak, "You wweren't half bad yourself, you knoww."

"Paw, it was nothing." Nepeta smiled, waving a hand dismissively, "You took down the larger prey."

"Wwith a fuckin cannon." Eridan laughed, "You took dowwn prey three times your size wwith nothin but a set a clawws."

"It was more like five times my size." Nepeta said, rolling her shoulders, "But is it really that impressive?"

"Cod yes it is." Eridan assured her. At this point they had begun looking at each other again with only a faint flush on their cheeks, "You should take more pride in your accomplishments, Nep."

"Purride isn't always a good thing." Nepeta said softly, "Besides, hunting isn't all that impurressive."

"Nep, wwhat you call hunting others wwould call miraculous." Eridan scoffed.

"Others being Gamzee?" Nepeta smiled wryly and Eridan laughed.

"Yeah, I suppose Gam wwould be the only one to call it miraculous."

"All it is is me jumping around the jungle, purrtending I'm a cat and getting filthy." Nepeta sighed out. All the happiness in the room seemed to snuff out with that.

"No, Nep, it's much more than that." Eridan moved closer to his friend.

"You're right." Nepeta glared and Eridan flinched back, surprised, "I also annoy my friends with my roleplaying and puns." Eridan noticed that she had dropped her puns and was becoming teary-eyed.

"Nep..." he breathed out, frowning. He used his thumb to catch one of her tears as it started rolling down her cheek, "Please don't cry."

"I'm sorry." Nepeta rubbed her eyes, "I've been doing that a lot lately. After drying her eyes, she noticed how close Eridan was to her, but didn't mind.

"I don't think your puns or your roleplayin are annoyin." Eridan smiled.

"You used to." the catgirl glared.

"Wwell, I used to do a lot a things." Eridan rubbed his neck while thinking of the right thing to say next, "An I think your runnin around the jungle is pretty beautiful."

"I remember." Nepeta rolled her eyes.

"Remember?" Eridan asked, "This is the first time I'vve mentioned it." Nepeta's eyes widened. She had forgotten that Eridan thought she was asleep when he made his confession. Eridan's eyes slowly widened and he broke out into a cold sweat as the realization hit him. "Are... are you talkin about this mornin..?"

"Yeah." Nepeta spoke so quietly Eridan almost didn't hear her.

"I sea." he replied, surprisingly composed, "Wwell. This is embarrissin."

"Yeah." Nepeta repeated. The two trolls sat there in yet another awkward silence. "Did you mean it?" she asked, her voice cutting through the silence and startling Eridan.

"Wwhat I said this mornin? Evvery wword a it." Eridan nodded. After a moment he gave her a question of his own, "Did you like it..?"

Nepeta nodded, her smile slowly returning, but her eyes downcast, "It was pawsitively beautiful." then she frowned, "But I don't know what you see in a "filthy, barbaric lowwblooded landwweller"."

Eridan couldn't help but laugh a little and earned a glare from Nepeta. "Sorry Nep, but wwhen you do my accent like that, it just sounds hilarious." Nepeta couldn't keep up her glare and joined in the laughter. They laughed for awhile, occasionally grabbing the other for support or playfully shoving. Eventually they settled down, leaning on each other. "You shouldn't be so dowwn on yourself." Eridan said softly.

"I know."

"I don't knoww wwhy you seem so dowwn lately." Eridan admitted, "Is it me? If you need me to quit makin advvances on you, I wwill. I wwaited for Fef for swweeps - I can givve you as much time as you need." His voice had a sort of panicked edge to it and Nepeta shook her head quickly.

"No, it's not you." she assured him, "In fact, you make me feel better. It's me. I got over Karkitty, but I still feel heartbroken and confused."

"Sounds like you're not completely ovver him yet." Eridan observed.

"Are you completely ofur Fefuri?" Nepeta asked, a little nift.

"Admittedly, no." Eridan confessed with a sad smile, "Not completely. There wwill alwways be a small part a me that lovves her - I lovved her for most a my life, after all - but I'vve movved on, an I'm in lovve wwith someone else noww." He smiled and gently stroked Nepeta's cheek, she purred a little at the touch, but stopped with a blush. Eridan continued, "Wwhat I'm sayin is that it's ok to still lovve someone you'vve lovved for a long time, but you can't let it hold you back from livvin."

After some silence spent thinking, Nepeta spoke up, "Wow. You're really mature now."

"I'll be honest, Nep, I'm not shore wwhere any a that suavve swwill speak just came from." Eridan laughed, "But thanks for the compliment."

"Ampurra." Nepeta began, but stopped suddenly. She was blushing a little. Honestly, she was going to ask if they could kiss again, but with more thought it seemed stupid. With one bit of wise advice from Eridan she was ready to love someone else? Not only that, but asking for permission to kiss from someone she knew damn well wanted to kiss was stupid.

"Wwhat?" Eridan asked, cutting through her rambling thoughts.

Nepeta turned around quickly and placed her arms around Eridan's neck, pulling him in for a hug. The embrace was so sudden and forceful that they both fell down. Eridan used his elbows to keep his back from slamming into the cave floor and both trolls foreheads connected as a result. They both reeled back slightly, using a free hand to clutch their heads as they rubbed at the soreness. Then they noticed how close their faces were to each other. Eridan used his free hand to rub at Nepeta's sore forehead, where her hand met his. They intertwined, his ringed fingers with her bare ones, their hands trailing down her face and then to his chest where he pulled her in closer to him. She was purring, unintentionally. Their heads moved in closer.

Their lips connected and the world was bright again. Everything was warm and wonderful and everlasting. Eridan felt all the anxiety and self-doubt since his nightmare wash away in that moment of bliss, while Nepeta felt free from her lonely, loveless existence. It was everything either of them had hoped for in their unrequited matesprit fantasies, and more. They deepened the kiss, breaking for only the quickest inhalations of breath. They noticed each other's quirks playing out in their kisses - Eridan had a rhytmic motion with his lips, like waves carressing a coast, while Nepeta seemed to purr into her kisses, motions her lips would make while rolling her r's making the kiss even more enjoyable. Before long, Nepeta began licking while kissing, her tongue grazing Eridan's lips, seeking entrance that Eridan happily allowed. Every time their tongues clashed, it sent an electric tingle through their minds, set off fireworks behind their eyelids. Eventually both trolls had to stop, the stimulation filling their heads with white nothingness that threatened to overwhelm them.

They lay there, catching their breaths, legs twisted together, arms wrapped around each other. As they cooled down, they still speckled each other with the occasional peck or even a lick. Before long they were both on the cave ground, staring up into the blackness far above, smiling. They had both lost a person they never had, but they found each other. It was almost morning when they got up and changed into their nighttime attire.

"My lusus should be here tomorroww." Eridan said with some sadness, "I wwish wwe could hang out again sometime."

"I wish you could stay." Nepeta smiled sadly, "But at least we can set up futfur dates."

"That's true, at least." Eridan nodded before inhlaing deeply. Nepeta looked at him, bright-eyed as always. "I lovve you, Nep. I really do."

"I love you too, Ampurra." Nepeta said. She was surprised she could form the words, but she had meant them. Eridan looked as if he was going to faint from the admission and Nepeta laughed.

Then the world seemed wrong.

"Nep?" Eridan's voice rang out and seemed to stay in the air for awhile before being drowned out in fire and screaming.

Her mind was spinning, burning, stinging. Everything was wrong. All the angles of her cave took on impossible shapes and dimensions - the geometry of the place was simply impossible. Visions of devestation and death on massive scales plagued her mind at such a rate she could only recognize a cold outline of their import. Her mind was searing, raging with pain and wracked in torment. Eridan's voice was lost among the voices of countless, billions of dead. She realized the screams were her own.

As Nepeta convulsed on the cave floor, olive blood spilling from every orifice on her face, eyes rolled back into her skull, Eridan clung to her, trying to calm her body. When she stopped shaking, Eridan held her, violet rivulets of tears streaming down his face. The heat fled from her body and he still held it close. He knew what this was. He knew what had done it. He cursed himself for failing in such a simple task. All he had to do was keep Gl'bgolyb fed and quiet. Now her psychic whine was moving up the hemospectrum. Aradia and Sollux were definately dead. With Nepeta in his arms, Eridan knew Kanaya wouldn't be far behind. Then the rest of his friends. If they were fortunate, the horrifying lusus would let out the infamous "vast glub" and finish them all quickly.

Eridan sat there, clinging to Nepeta's body as the hours passed. His time came shortly after.

**Alright, nobody panic. That isn't the ending.**


	6. Chapter 6

**First of all, I'd like to apologize for the ending of the last chapter's moodkiller (literally - zing!) but it's for the good of the plot. Secondly, I'd like to apologize for the delay. My friends dragged me to a convention - Tokyo in Tulsa (TnT) for three days. I won't go into detail, but let me tell you... So many trolls. Anyway, putting a warning in here: SPOILERS AHOY! The plot will eventually get into the current events of Homestuck, or at least very recent events of Homestuck, so if you aren't up-to-date on what's been going on, in a few chapters it might get confusing. You have been warned.**

**Now read and hopefully enjoy :)**

Eridan's eyes snapped open and he sat upright, breathing irregularly. The sudden motion sent an empty glass clinking to the floor, but it didn't shatter. Eridan checked himself, feeling his body and making sure he was solid. After establishing it as fact, he looked around at his surroundings. He had fallen asleep in his armchair while drinking Faygo and whiskey to get over his rejection by Feferi and his break-up with Vriska. Falling asleep outside of his recuperacoon certainly explained his recent nightmare.

Standing up and stretching, Eridan found he couldn't exactly remember his nightmare. He knew it had something to do with the deaths of his friends and wanted to check and see if they were alright. Checking his clock, he saw that is was morning - only one other troll would be up at this hour. He moved to his room and took a seat in front of his husktop, logging into Trollian. Sure enough, there she was, the only troll logged in besides him.

caligulasAquarium began trolling grimAuxiliatrix at 5:00 a.m.

CA: hey kan

CA: are you up or did you just forget to log out?

GA: Eridan? Why Are You Up At This Hour?

CA: oh good youre online

CA: yeah i wwas just wwanting to

CA: i guess i just wwanted to make sure youre alright or somefin.

GA: Although It Confuses Me, I Appreciate The Concern. I Am Fine.

GA: Why Are You Acting So Peculiar, If You Don't Mind My Asking?

CA: i fell asleep out a my recuperacoon and had the most lucid fuckin dream ivve evver had

GA: Oh My.

GA: Still, I Don't See Why You'd Ask About My Well-Being. If Anything, I'd Be Concerned For You. Are You Quite Alright, Eridan?

CA: relax im fine

CA: in the dream

CA: wwait a minute

GA: What Is It, Eridan?

CA: wwhat in the fuckin

CA: im not shore wwhy, but evverythin seems kind a familiar for some reason

GA: Whatever Do You Mean?

CA: i mean i think ivve done this before

CA: wwent to sleep in my recliner an havve a nightmare an wwake up to talk wwith you ovver trollian

CA: wwhat the glubbin fuck is goin on here?

GA: I Was Hoping You'd Figure It Out Soon.

GA: I Do Hate Going Through Repetetive Motions.

CA: wwhat?

CA: do you knoww somethin i dont kan?

GA: Plenty.

GA: But I Think What You Are Reffering To Is Your Current Case Of Deja Vu.

CA: wwhat the fuck is that?

GA: It's A Human Term For The Sensation Of Reliving A Past Experience Without It Ever Having Occurred.

CA: oh

CA: wwhat the fuck is a human?

GA: Yes, I Forgot That You Are From One Of Those Doomed Timelines.

CA: wwhat?

CA: kan your fancy shit isnt helpin my mood any!

CA: tell me wwhat the fuck is goin on!

GA: Give Me A Minute, I'll Be Right Over.

The Trollian window Eridan had opened simply disappeared and the screen was utterly blank. While he sat there, stupified over this sudden incident, he felt a sudden presence behind him and turned to see a beautiful troll with short, flawless black locks in a fantastic dress. Her distinguishing features included noticeably longer canines and nearly-symmetrical horns with one bent downward at the end. Eridan realized that this was his good friend Kanaya, whom he'd never seen in person before.

"Wwhat's wwrong wwith your eyes, Kan?" he asked. They were white, not yellow, and utterly without pupils.

"I'm Surprised You Would Ask About That Instead Of How I Got Here So Fast Or Continuing To Question Me Over Your Current Situation." Kanaya replied smartly. Eridan frowned.

"I'll get to those questions in a minute, Kan. Answwer the first one." he growled. Being out of the loop was making him very aggrivated.

"If You Are Refering To Why My Eyes Have Lost All Color As Well As My Lack Of Pupils, It Is Due To A Simple Shared Trait Between Us." Kanaya worded with an educated tone to her voice.

"An that is?" Eridan asked, impatiently.

"We Are Both Dead." Kanaya finished with an oddly out-of-place smile.

"Wwhat?" Eridan blanked, trying to process the fact as his hive disappeared and became a miasma of varying colors and matter. The terrain shifted with his memories, becoming a mix of the ocean floor, his hive and - for some reason - a cavern and a jungle. "Wwhat do you mean wwe're dead? Wwhat happened?"

"What Is The Last Thing You Remember?" Kanaya asked.

"I wwoke up from a nightmare." Eridan shrugged.

"Do You Recall What The Nightmare Entailed?"

"No."

"Try To Remember. It Should Come More Easily Now That You Realize You Are Dead."

Eridan closed his eyes and focused, trying to figure out what his nightmare had been about. Slowly bits and pieces came back and the terrain shifted with his memories. There was another nightmare - where he had killed friends and then died. There were chats - one with Kanaya, which he had just participated in to some degree, and one with Nepeta where they planned to hang out. The thought of Nepeta sparked a flood of emotions and memories. They had met aboard his vessel. He had defended her at the cost of his ship and his crew. They spent time in her hive. They hunted. They kissed. They confessed their mutual love for one another. Then.

Eridan's eyes shot open and he found his cheeks wet with violet tears. Kanaya had her hand on his back, rubbing it supportively. "It's Alright, Eridan."

"Is Nep..?" Eridan felt his throat close up before he could finish the question. Kanaya nodded and he felt his spirits rise a little.

"Nepeta Is Perfectly Fine." Kanaya assured him, "She Is Deceased - Many Times Over, Actually - But The Nepeta You Know Is Safe And Sound In Another Dream Bubble."

"Wwhat's a dream bubble?" Eridan asked, finding his voice.

"What You Are Standing In Is A Dream Bubble." Kanaya gestured around, "Aradia Travelled Throughout All The Timelines Of Our Session And Rescued Billions Of Versions Of Each Of Us From Doomed Timelines."

"Doomed timelines?" Eridan asked. Kanaya spent twenty minutes filling Eridan in on SGRUB, the video game his timeline version of Sollux hadn't downloaded and thus his timeline had never played. She told him that their session had gone very roughly, and as a result there were countless billions of doomed splintering timelines. The dream bubbles existed to house the ghosts of the players from the doomed timelines. She also explained that she was neither the Kanaya from his timeline, nor was she the Kanaya from the "Alpha Timeline" - a term coined by many of the ghosts to describe the "correct" timeline.

"Alright..." Eridan nodded, getting used to the concept of death - billions of times over - as the information processed in his head. Curiosity suddenly got the better of him and he asked, "So wwhat happened to my alpha timeline self?"

"Oh. I Thought You Might Ask That." Kanaya looked away awkwardly, "Vriska Broke Up With You, Feferi Rejected You In Favor Of Sollux, You Went Insane And Killed Feferi And Myself, Then I Came Back From The Dead And Killed You."

"That happened in my nightmare." Eridan seemed shocked.

"Yes, It's Not Uncommon For Doomed Timelines To Have Some Vision Of Their Alpha Timeline Self's Journey." Kanaya said before changing tones, "Now, If You Have No Other Questions?"

"Wwait, you're just goin to leavve me?" Eridan seemed dumbfounded.

"I Would Like To Return To My Friends From My Timeline." Kanaya explained, "Vriska And I Were Going To Race Her Ship Against My Timeline's Eridan And Equius' Own Ship."

"Wwhoa, wwhat?" Eridan quirked an eyebrow. Kanaya sighed.

"In My Timeline, Vriska And I Became Metesprits, Whereas You And Equius Became Matesprits. Due To Your Kismessissitude With Vriska, Equius And I Entered One Of Our Own - Though Ours Is Far More Civilized Than Theirs." Kanaya explained with a smile, "We Go On Double Redrom-Blackrom Dates."

"Eq an me..?" Eridan seemed even more dumbfounded, but shook his head, "Wwhatevver! Look, I don't wwant to keep you, Kan - you'vve been a great help - but I need to knoww wwhere Nep is. My Nep."

"I'm Sorry Eridan, But It's Very Difficult To Keep Track Of Everyone In These Dream Bubbles." Kanaya explained, saddened, "It Took Me A Very Long Time To Gather The Trolls From Our Particular Session. There Are Such miniscule Differences In Most Of The Timelines - Things Like What One Ate On A Certain Day, For Example - That Spawn Doomed Timelines. As a Result, The Influx Of Doomed Players' Ghosts Is Virtually Endless."

"Wwhat?!" Eridan whined.

"However, Players From The Same Timelines Seem To Be Drawn To Each Other." Kanaya offered with a smile, "And If You're Really Having Trouble, You Could Always Find The Alpha Aradia. She's Alive, So Her Eyes Should Still Be Yellow, And She Wears A Red, Hooded Outfit. Oh, And She Has Wings."

"...Wwings?" Eridan deadpanned, Kanaya nodding happily, "Fuck it. I don't care. I'm just goin to look around for a bit. You go havve fun wwith my alternate self an Vvris an Eq. Thanks again for the help." Eridan offered, genuinely.

"Anything For My Moirail." Kanaya winked before teleporting away. Eridan blinked, surprised.

The seadweller walked through the dream bubble in search of familiar faces. Unfortunately, there was nothing but familiar faces among the crowds of trolls in various outfits. It didn't take him to long to determine what all of his friends looked like - all he had to do was match the color of their text from memory to the color of the symbols on their shirts, or at least the ones that were wearing their symbols. Many trolls were wearing similar gold or purple pajamas or ridiculous costumes with butterfly wings.

He saw many versions of himself. Most of them wore his usual attire. Some wore purple pajamas. A few wore light yellow costumes with an odd white symbol on their chests that resembled feathery wings. Nearly all of them were scowling like kicked dogs or sharing a look of arrogance. Eridan suddenly felt a sense of self-loathing, even though he couldn't help but admire his beauty at the same time. There were a handful of Eridans that wore women's clothing, or were in fact female versions of him - sometimes it was hard to tell the difference. Then he found a Nepeta.

"Nep, is that you?" he asked hopefully.

"Ampurra?" she quirked an eyebrow, "What do you want?"

"I take it you're not from my timeline, then?" Eridan sighed.

"Did you die from a giant imp?" Nepeta asked. Eridan shook his head, guessing that an imp was something from SGRUB. "Then I'm sorry, but I'm not furom your timeline."

"Oh." Eridan looked a little downtrodden.

"I'm guessing you were flushed fur me in your timeline?" Nepeta offered a smile, "It's pawlright; Eridan Ampurra is flushed fur Nepeta Leijon in a lot of timelines. Were you from one of the ones where it was requited? Those are rare."

"Do you mean if she lovved me back?" Eridan asked, "Yeah, near the end."

"That's so pawsome!" the alternate Nepeta squealed, "I love seeing all the sunk ships alive out here! It's like they're all canon!"

"Nep, I don't understand a wword you just said." Eridan confessed.

"You usually don't." Nepeta giggled.

Eridan said his goodbyes and kept looking for the Nepeta from his timeline. He found dozens of them, but none of them were his. Some looked at him as a friend, others as an aquaintance, others with fear, other with disgust - the list of reactions is endless. He did find at least one other Nepeta that was in a matespritship with an Eridan - an Eridan from another timeline, in fact - but not his Nepeta. Finally, while looking into the faces of all his friends thousands of times, he felt one stand out more than the others. Their pupiless eyes locked and they smiled and went to greet each other.

"Fef, cod, am I glad to see you!" Eridan sighed in relief. He was absolutely sure it was the Feferi from his timeline.

"-ERIDAN!" Feferi grinned, running over and hugging her moirail, "Oh my glub, it's so great to sea you!"

"Howw do you knoww I'm the Eridan from your timeline?" Eridan asked, wryly smiling.

") (ow do you know if I'm t) (e Feferi from your timeline?" Feferi laughed, "Let's just say it's moirail intuition and leave it at t) (at."

"Alright." Eridan laughed. He quit smiling as a thought hit him. "Wwhat are you doin here anywway? Your lusus' damned glub shouldn't havve been able to kill you, you bein a fuchsia-blood an all."

"O) (, you didn't know?" Feferi asked, looking saddened, "After I talked to you, I W-ENT out to ) (unt down some food for Gl'bgolyb, but I died before I could find anyfin."

"Oh cod, I should havve come back an helped you Fef!" Eridan felt himself overcome with grief, "If I hadn't been tryin to fill a quadrant wwith Nep, I might havve been able to swwim back in time to feed your lusus an kept you from dyin!"

"-ERIDAN, don't blame yourself!" Feferi seemed even sadder, "It wasn't your fault! ) (ow could you ) (ave possibly known w) (at would ) (appen? -EVEN I'm surprised."

"Wwhat killed you anywway?" Eridan asked, even though it was a difficult question.

"I don't t) (ink you want to know." Feferi looked away anxiously.

"Come on Fef," Eridan smiled encouragingly, "I'm shore it wwasn't too embarrassin, an I wwon't judge you for it."

"It's not t) (at, t) (oug) ( it was PR-ETTY -EMBARRASSING." Feferi frowned before taking a deep breath, "T) (e pirates w) (o t) (rew you off of your s) (ip accidently clipped me wit) ( t) (e s) (ip w) (ale I was ) (unting. I don't t) (ink t) (ey even noticed t) (at t) (ey krilled me."

Eridan was silent for a moment before breaking out into a bizarre sobbing that stunned Feferi for a moment before she began shooshing him and papping him gently. "Oh cod Nep, I messed up big!"

"No you didn't, -ERIDAN." Feferi said.

"No, I did, I really, _reelly_ did!" Eridan said between sobs, "Because I wwasn't there to help you - like a good moirail - you died, and then all a our friends died!"

"-ERIDAN! PL-EAS-E don't cry." Feferi pleaded, "We were all going to die anywave. We were a doomed timeline."

"Wweh! Wweh!" Eridan continued sobbing.

"OH MY GOG, SHUT THE HELL UP FISH-DICK!" a nearby Karkat groaned, "YOU THINK YOU'RE THE ONLY ONE WHO FUCKED UP AND GOT HIS FRIENDS KILLED? I'VE DONE IT MORE THAN MOST, APPARENTLY."

"YEAH, FUCK YOU ALTERNATE ME. I MIGHT HAVE DOOMED MY TEAM, BUT AT LEAST I DIDN'T RUIN AS BADLY AS YOU DID." another Karkat shouted out.

Within seconds, every Karkat was arguing, every Terezi and Vriska cackling, every Tavros stammering, every Sollux and Eridan arguing, every Kanaya and Feferi trying to calm the horde down, and every Nepeta, Equius and Aradia merely spectating. Eridan noticed there wasn't a single doomed Gamzee in the mess of alternate trolls, but figured his ghosts were in some other, bizarre clown bubble. His observations were interrupted by fights breaking out between the trolls. The most common duels appeared to be Vriska and robotic duplicates of Aradia, and Sollux and Eridan, but there was an infinite number of pairings fighting or placating. Some were blackroms, others were pure hate.

"My cod, this is too hectic." Eridan breathed out, "Fef, let's go somewwhere more quiet to talk."

"Alrig) (t." Feferi nodded, grateful to escape the chaos of the dream bubble brawl, "But first let me get t) (e ot) (er trolls I found from our timeline."

Feferi escaped into the mashing pit of fighting trolls, disappearing in the fray, and Eridan was worried she might be trampled. Then he remembered they were dead, and would probably be impervious to such things. He sighed in relief when she returned with a handful of trolls, and he felt the same sense of familiarity with them even though he had never met them in person when they were alive. Eridan and Feferi escaped with their Sollux, Vriska and Karkat in tow.

"GOG, THAT ALTERNATE TIMELINE VERSION OF ME WAS SUCH AN ASSHOLE." Karkat huffed out when they were out of hearing distance from the tumult behind them.

"Kk, you're an a22hole iin every tiimliine." Sollux stated.

"FUCK YOU, CAPTOR." Karkat flipped his friend off. Eridan was always surprised with how close the two of them were and yet how volatile they seemed to each other.

"This is just gr8." Vriska sighed melodramatically, "We're dead and I found out - from a vaaaaaaaast majority of our dead copies - that my moirail is flushed for me. Talk a8out awkward, right Feferi?"

"-ERIDAN and I ) (ave resolved t) (at." Feferi smiled, and then added in a hushed tone, ") (e's flus) (ed for Nepeta now."

"Ii'm not 2urprii2ed." Sollux shrugged, "From what Ii gathered, a lot of the doomed Eriidan2 triied to go after NP. Even the alpha versiion, but he cra2hed 2pectacularly."

"Are wwe done talkin about my flushed quadrant like my I'm not standin right fuckin here?" Eridan asked, irritation evident in his tone.

"Yeeeeeeeesh, Ampora, who lit a fire in your nook?" Vriska asked.

"No one, I just miss Nep is all." Eridan blushed.

"Ii mii22 AA." Sollux confessed.

"I DON'T REALLY CARE ABOUT THE FRIENDS FROM OUR TIMELINE." Karkat shrugged, "IT'S NOT LIKE WE DON'T HAVE A MILLION OF EACH JUST SITTING NEARBY."

"Yeah, 8ut those aren't oooooooour friends - just more doomed copies." Vriska said.

"We're doomed copies too." Feferi frowned.

"THEY'RE ALL NEARLY THE SAME." Karkat said, "I COULD GO TO ANY ONE OF THEM AND THEY'D BE ALMOST EXACTLY LIKE THE ONES FROM OUR TIMELINE. I COULD BASICALLY REPLACE ANY OF OUR FRIENDS, BECAUSE THESE "COPIES" ARE OUR FRIENDS!"

"Would you replace TZ 2o easiily?" Sollux grinned.

"FUCK YOU." Karkat scowled, blushing slightly.

"So wwe're agreed?" Eridan asked, "Wwe should start searchin for the rest of our friends from our timeline."

"Glub." Feferi smiled supportively.

"2ure." Sollux agreed.

"O8viouuuuuuuusly!" Vriska rolled her eyes.

"I DON'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK WHAT WE DO. SEARCHING FOR OUR FRIENDS SURE BEATS STANDING AROUND SHOOTING OUR NUTRITION CHUTES OFF ABOUT HOOFBEAST SHIT FOR MILLENIA, THOUGH." Karkat sighed.

"Then let's go." Eridan turned on his heel and led his friends further into the dream bubble.

**Another head's up: there will be crack ships. Since every ship is canon thanks to Hussie's brilliant doomed timelines, the fic will have cameos of various pairings.**


	7. Chapter 7

Nepeta woke up and smiled. Today was the big day. Eridan was coming by to pick her up on his pirate ship, and she wanted to be prepared. She took her ablutions, changed into her usual attire and logged onto Trollian. It was late day; soon it would be dusk and Eridan would meet her on the coast nearby. She had asked Equius to wake early with her and chat on Trollian to help calm her down. She had never been on a pirate ship before and didn't want her usual energetic personality to embarrass he while hanging out with a friend she hardly knew.

arsenicCatnip began trolling centaursTesticle at 7:30pm

AC: :33 *ac pounces playfully on her meowrail, mewling cutely in gr33ting*

CT: D - I was e%pecting you to wake earlier.

AC: :33 no roleplaying?

CT: D - You know I do not participate in such whimsical e%ercises, Nepeta.

AC: :33 paw, you're no fun

CT: D - So I have been told.

CT: D - You wanted to talk to me this early in the evening because of some an%iety over your upcoming date with Eridan, correct?

AC: :33 it is NOT a date

AC: :33 we're just going to hang out and stuff

CT: D - So you say. I hope you are right. I do not like the idea of my moirail entering a quadrant with a seadweller.

AC: :33 equius, don't be like that. ampurra is a purrety nice guy when you get past how cr33py he can be

AC: :33 and don't judge our furiends just beclaws they're seadwellers

CT: D - You will have to e%cuse my disdain for seadwellers. It's strictly professional.

AC: :33 i know but it still bothers me

AC: :33 wait a minute

AC: :33 this all seems purrety familiar

CT: D - Are you referring to the conversation?

CT: D - Yes, I suppose one could take only so much repetition before remembering.

AC: :33 what?

CT: D - One moment, I'll be right over.

Nepeta's screen turned dark and within seconds she realized someone was behind her. Turning, claws at the ready, she was startled to see Equius standing there in her hive. They had met up once or twice in person, but there was something different about him - something she couldn't really define.

"Equius? What are you doing here?" she asked.

"I must apologize in advance for what I'm about to tell you. It will surely be... enlightening." Equius said in cool, even tones as he always did, "I'm afraid that we are both deceased." As Nepeta raised an eyebrow at the statement, Equius removed his cracked sunglasses to reveal that his eyes had become white and pupiless.

"We're dead?" Nepeta asked, unsure how to take the news. On the one hand, death was supposed to be a bad thing, and yet, she didn't feel in pain or anything other than normal. It was like nothing had really happened at all.

"I'm sure you're dealing with a lot of STRONG emotions at the moment." Equius said softly.

"Not really." Nepeta said blandly, "I thought death would be a lot more... painful?"

"Oh it was. I hear it is e%crutiatingly painful to have perished by the Vast Glub." Equius said.

"Vast Glub?" Nepeta blinked, "I died from the Vast Glub?"

"I forget that the newly-deceased tend to e%perience varying degrees of amnesia." Equius crossed his arms, "Please, think back and try to remember what happened."

Nepeta closed her eyes and frowned, "I remember waking up furom my cat-nap and talking to you on Trollian." she said, "I was going to hang out with Ampurra..." A flood of memories came back and she found herself in the living chamber of her hive rather than the room she slept in.

"I can tell you've recalled what happened to some e%tent at least." Equius gave a rare, though tiny, smile.

"Yeah. Ampurra asked to hang out, and we did on his pirate ship." Nepeta said, "There was a meowtiny and we were thrown overboard. We hung out in my hive, and hunted, and..." Nepeta trailed off, blushing.

"I see." Equius said neutrally, "I am assuming the - for lack of a better term - "pailing" was flushed in nature?"

"What?!" Nepeta's face flushed olive, "We did not pail! We just... made out and shared a recupurracoon."

"Oh my."

"It was purrfectly platonic and furiendly until he stole my furst kiss!" Nepeta tried to defend herself, "Though I have to admit, it was purretty great."

"Alright then. I believe you." Equius looked a little too sweaty, "You may cease the defensiveness."

"Defensive? I'm not being defensive!" Nepeta sputtered.

"Relax, Nepeta." Equius tried to placate, "I've seen numerous of Nepetas engaged in various quadrants with numerous Eridans."

"What?" Nepeta asked, taking offguard by the question.

"Ah, yes. I forgot you weren't aware of the nature of post-death e%istence." Equius apologized, "I will take a moment to e%plain dream bubbles and how they function."

Equius explained to Nepeta how Aradia used time powers she obtained from a game - a game that Nepeta's timeline hadn't played - to save all of the doomed versions of the twelve chosen players and give them a semblance of life in floating bubbles made of memories. Nepeta accepted the news rather well, glad to hear that all of her friends - even after dying - were still "alive" in a fashion. Equius said that he wasn't surprised by her response - most Nepetas were ok with dream bubbles.

"I guess that means Ampurra is..?" Nepeta began.

"The seadweller is safe, relatively speaking." Equius nodded, "The Eridan from your timeline is roaming around somewhere."

"How many Ampurras are there?" Nepeta dared to ask.

"I cannot say for sure." Equius shrugged, "Anywhere between a few hundred billion to infinity, I suppose."

"Oh." Nepeta looked crestfallen.

"I'm sure he is nearby, however." Equius smiled, "Aradia typically organizes the dream bubbles in such a way that most doomed timeline ghosts coe%ist happily." Equius began sweating again, "She's very thoughtful. For a peasantb100d."

"Meowgido is nice like that." Nepeta smiled, remembering how much fun they would have roleplaying.

"Yes. She certainly is..." Equius shuddered, sweating more, "...nice."

"Equius, are you alright?"

"I am fine." the blueblood lied, "Pardon me. I seems I have been perspiring STRONGLY. I require a towel."

"Are you just going to leave?" Nepeta frowned.

"I have other business to attend to." Equius informed her, "I am not from your timeline."

"Oh. I kind of furgured that." Nepeta said, downtrodden, "I suppaws I should try and find my Ampurra, right?"

"You may do whatever you like." Equius said, "Though you could do much better than a seadweller who is - and excuse the offensive language - a "hipster douchebag"."

"Hey!" Nepeta scowled, but Equius had already left. She began mumbling to herself, "Ampurra might be a hipster douchebag, but he's _my_ hipster douchebag."

It wasn't hard to find where the majority of the ghosts had massed together. Their combined memories had created a veritable city of hives, Prospitian and Dersite spires, waterways, jungles, deserts, castles, mansions and sea vessels. Nepeta quickly discovered which of her friends were which, matching the color of their text to the color of the symbol on their shirts. She was pleased to see all of her friends there - except, oddly, Gamzee. For awhile, she didn't try to talk to anyone except the duplicates of Equius and Eridan, trying to find either her long-time moirail or her recent matesprit, but none of them were hers.

"Hey! There's another one!" Nepeta heard a familiar voice from behind her followed by a lot of squeals of the same voice. Turning, she was suddenly rushed by a horde of duplicates of herself. Some were the same age or older than her, but most were younger. Some wore silly purple pajamas or odd, pink costumes with heart symbols on them.

"What's going on?" Nepeta asked, taken by surprise.

"What was your timeline like?"

"Were you flushed for anyone?"

"Was it Karkitty?"

"Did Meowkara and Tavros get together in your timeline?"

"What about Catpurr and Ampurra?"

"Ooo! Red- or blackrom?"

Nepeta began sweating from anxiety and pried the other Nepetas off of her, earning some breathing space. The Nepetas were split between waiting anxiously or giving curious looks at her. For simplicity's sake, the protagonist Nepeta will be referred to as "Nepeta 1".

"Uh..." Nepeta 1 stuttered, not sure how to react to this latest turn of events, "What do all of you - er - me want?"

"We want to know what your timeline was like!" an older Nepeta, an apparent leader of the group, said, "And the ships."

"The ships?" Nepeta 1 blinked.

"Yes!" Nepeta 2 squealed, "The ships! There's so many timelines, so nearly every ship has been played out! It's a shippurr's paradise!"

"Oh." Nepeta 1's eyes widened. She had never thought about the dream bubbles that way. Suddenly she was excited. Every ship she ever loved was real somewhere in the dream bubbles. She answered her doppelgangers, "You asked about my timeline's ships? I am in a meowrallegience with Equius."

"The purrfect meowrail."

"Undoubtedly."

"We had problems..." one Nepeta said softly, but the others merely gave her a hug and giggled. Nepeta 1 never realized how much she purred until she heard it around her in such volumes, but she didn't mind. In fact, it was rather enjoyable.

"Sollux and Aradia are in a matespritship, last I checked." Nepeta 1 said. Several other Nepetas cheered and a few others looked a little disappointed but still happy. "And I recently entered a matespritship with Ampurra."

Dead silence. The other Nepetas were stunned. When the shock wore off, a few of them cringed while others looked away, trying to focus on anything else. Nepeta 1 raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Sorry." Nepeta 2 offered a smile, but it was a little strained, "It's just that very few Nepetas actually _like_ Ampurra, let alone _love_ him."

"Why's that?" Nepeta 1 asked, a little offended.

"I don't know what your timeline was like, but in my timeline he was a jerk." Nepeta 2 said. This was followed by a chorus of agreements and follow-up complaints.

"He kept hitting on me..."

"He always wanted to pail. With ANYONE."

"He stole Karkitty from me."

"He killed Equius."

The list went on for a time, the complaints ranging from simple observations of his arrogant attitude to horrible crimes particular Eridans had committed - including rape, genocide, murder, and sometimes all three. Nepeta 1 blanched, surprised that any Eridan could commit such heinous crimes. Granted, with infinite alternate timelines, wasn't it likely that every player had committed the same crimes in at least a few timelines. With that in mind, she didn't feel any more relieved - just more worried.

"Well my Ampurra is different!" Nepeta 1 stomped forward, startling the other Nepetas out of their rants, "He stood up for me against his own crew, and we got thrown ofurboard for it and he wasn't angry at me beclaws of it! Then he saved me furom drowning and swam me to shore! And he stole my first kiss, but it was pawesome and I loved it and I love him!" Nepeta 1 tipped her head back and shouted to anyone who could hear, "I LOVE ERIDAN AMPORA!"

"Wow." one of the Nepetas blinked, "That was... so romantic!"

"I know, right?!"

"Of all the EriNeps I've seen so far, there's is the cutest!"

"Catfish is my new OTP! After SolNep, of course. Ah... Sollux."

Nepeta 1 smiled at the sudden change in attitude, but then frowned. She was really easy to manipulate, apparently. That didn't help her uneasy mood at all - a lot of self-discovery was happening, and a bit too quickly for her tastes. To make matters worse, an arm wrapped around her shoulders. Turning her head, she saw Eridan's face, but rather than the warm, loving sensation she had felt for the Eridan from her timeline, she felt very put off by his arrogant smirk.

"Wwell, hello there Nep." the Eridan winked. Behind him were a few dozen other Eridans - all apparently single and willing to date a Nepeta. The other Nepetas were hissing.

"Get out of here, creeps!" one of them said.

"Or wwhat? It's a free dream bubble, last time I checked!"

"You Ampurras make me so furryous!"

"Careful! One a us could get a caliginous vvibe from that."

"Ewwwww! As if I'd hate _any_ fursion of you, fish-dick!"

"Kitty litter!"

"Brine sucker!"

"Hairball!"

Nepeta 1 slowly backed out of the fray as Nepetas and Eridans shouted insults at each other. One had already unholstered Ahab's Crosshairs, but a Nepeta had jumped in and sliced the weapon in half before slapping the Eridan out of the way. All at once the two sides moved into fight with mixed results. A large amount of Nepetas stayed out of the fighting, while a small amount of Eridans likewise avoided conflict. The Nepetas were outnumbered, but the Eridans were so desperate to fill quadrants, so it seemed, that they avoided killing and turned on each other frequently.

Having absconded the area, Nepeta 1 (who shall now be referred to, again, as just "Nepeta") continued her search for her timeline's Eridan. She was filled with turmoil. She had just seen many different versions of herself, all so firmly against any version of Eridan. Granted, there were other Eridan and Nepeta couples out there, but how rare and despised they seemed to her duplicates made Nepeta doubt herself. After all, she wasn't from the "right" timeline anyway. Didn't that mean that her and Eridan were never meant to be? Didn't that mean that her emotions were a lie?

Confused, Nepeta continued her search for the troll of her conflicted emotions. She walked for a ways before feeling something - a familiar pulling sensation. She looked around, trying to locate it. So many of her friends everywhere, but one stood out somehow.

"uHHH. hEY THERE, UH, nEPETA." Tavros Nitram waved nervously as he approached, "i DON'T KNOW WHY, BUT, UH, i THINK YOU'RE THE nEPETA FROM MY TIMELINE?"

"Tavros!" Nepeta glomped her friend, "Oh my goodness! I've been looking everywhere fur my friends! I'm so glad to find one!"

"wELL, THERE ARE A LOT OF FRIENDS AROUND." Tavros laughed, "lIKE, UH, THERE'S THE TWELVE OF US, BUT, UM, BILLIONS OF US?"

"I knew what you meant, silly!" Nepeta giggled, "But I've only seen eleven of us."

"oH, WELL i'VE SEEN ALL TWELVE OF US." Tavros smiled, but cringed and blushed a little, "gAMZEE TRIED TO HIT ON ME..."

"You've seen Gamzee?" Nepeta gasped.

"yEAH, HE WAS ALIVE AND, UH, WEARING THIS WEIRD PURPLE OUTFIT." Tavros explained, "i THINK THEY CALL IT A GOD TIER?"

"Sounds right." Nepeta shrugged. Nepeta brightened a little, "You wouldn't happen to know where Ampurra is, would you?"

"eRIDAN? lIKE, UH, OUR eRIDAN?"

"Yep!"

"nO, SORRY. pLENTY OF OTHERS AROUND, THOUGH." Tavros said, then looked at the ground, "aLSO HITTING ON ME..."

"I really miss him." Nepeta pouted.

"eRIDAN? i THOUGHT YOU TWO DIDN'T GET ALONG. uH, OR DID SOMETHING HAPPEN?"

"We became matesprits befur the vast glub got us." Nepeta said wistfully.

"oH, CONGRATULATIONS!" Tavros said, but then looked around awkwardly, "i MEAN, ON THE FILLING A QUADRANT. nOT THE DYING. tHAT'S, UH, PRETTY UNFORTUNATE."

"Yeah. It sucked." Nepeta sighed, "Do you know where any of our other furiends are?"

"fROM OUR TIMELINE? uH, i THINK i SAW tEREZI AWHILE AGO, BUT i, UM, LOST HER..."

"I guess we'll just have to go hunting fur them, then." Nepeta sighed.

"yEAH, PROBABLY." Tavros shrugged.

"Let's go, then."

Nepeta led the way through further hordes of friends, searching frantically for the connection she shared with Tavros. She would find her friends, and her matesprit. She had never felt more determined about anything in her life - or afterlife, in this case.

She would find Eridan Ampora.


	8. Chapter 8

"Howw long havve wwe been searchin, you figure?" Eridan sighed in exasperation.

"It feeeeeeeels it's 8een three perigees, at least." Vriska laughed humorlessly, "8ut who knows out here? Time's meaningless, remem8er?"

"Yeah, I knoww." Eridan scoffed.

In the time they had searched throughout the dream bubble, the trolls had little luck in finding others from their timeline. The separation was taking its toll on all of them. Sollux, usually only a little melancholy or irritated, had been going through cycles of depression and indifference ever since his separation from Aradia. There were plenty of other Aradias, but none of them were his. Likewise, Eridan desperately missed his newfound matesprit, Nepeta. Although their relationship was young, just thinking about her and the thought that he'd never see her again made his vascular system ache, though with his moirail he got through the pain. Even Vriska was suffering from the separation from her moirail, Kanaya. Without having someone to vent her frustrations at, she was feeling increasingly on-edge.

The only ones that weren't riddled with anxiety over their lost friends were Feferi and Karkat. Feferi had never really entered any quadrant other than moirallegience with Eridan, and since they were together she felt no particular loss. Karkat, on the other hand, was more sensitive and missed his friends - one in particular - but didn't let it show. In fact, his indifference and crabby attitude almost seemed... inspiring to the friends around him. At times, it infuriated them and made them forget their problems, while at other times it brought them together under their shared goal. Karkat knew in the other timelines he was meant to be a leader, and since the other trolls were currently unstable without their missing romantic partners, there were no arguments against him assuming the role.

"I just don't knoww wwhat to do." Eridan sighed, removing his glasses and massaging his brow, "We'vve been searchin forevver an we havven't evven found a single one a our friends."

"Oh, relax, Eridan!" Vriska waved a hand dismissively, "It's not like we have a time limit or anything."

"2he'2 got a poiint, ED." Sollux shrugged, "Ii mii22 AA, but Ii'm 2ure we'll fiind her eventually."

"I'm glad to sea you're feeling B-ETT-ER, Sollux!" Feferi beamed, glad to see her friend in one of his rare, non-depressed moods, but he only shrugged in response.

"THIS GROUP THERAPY SHIT IS GREAT AND ALL, BUT DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE THE FUCK WE ARE?" Karkat piped up with an exasperated sigh.

"Wwell, wwe're somewwhere in the South Alternian Sea." Eridan said.

"Actually, this is o8viously the North Alternian Sea." Vriska corrected, "Couldn't you tell from the 8arometric readings?"

"That's a crock a hoofbeast shit if I evver heard it!" Eridan growled, standing toe-to-toe with Vriska, "The Alternian South Sea has a vvery distinct saline levvel in the air! That's wwhy they call the breeze that flows ovver the southern coastlines the Salt Wwinds."

"Puh-leeeeeeeease!" Vriska scoffed, "You think just 8ecause the air's a little salty, that makes these waters the South Sea? Utter 8ull! The 8arometric pressure is significantly lower in the North Sea! The high pressure in the South Sea is what causes all the tropical storms, you twit!"

"I knoww that!" Eridan shouted, "But you knoww as wwell as I do that the barometric readins could be due to an incomin cold front or-"

"HEY ASSHATS!" Karkat shouted over the two arguing seagrifts.

"Wwh8t?!" They turned and shouted in unison.

"DON'T YOU THINK THE REASON YOU CAN'T FIGURE OUT WHAT SEA WE'RE IN IS BECAUSE OF THE FACT THE TERRAIN IS SHAPED BY YOUR MEMORIES AND BOTH OF YOU ARE HAVING CONFLICTING MEMORIES?" Karkat said, "I MEAN, IT'S NOT FUCKING ROCKET SCIENCE! IT'S NOT EVEN REGULAR SCIENCE! IT'S COMMON SENSE."

Both Eridan and Vriska stopped their arguing and looked at the choppy waters around them. Geography was meaningless in the dream bubbles and, if both of them were honest with themselves, they weren't exactly sure how to use the more complicated sailing equipment anyway. Neither of them were completely sure whether high or low air pressure meant a storm was coming or not - they typically left that work to their underlings. Most of their seaborne experiences had been tactical or combative in nature. They were truly lost.

"Oh cod, howw long havve wwe been sailin nowwhere?" Eridan facepalmed.

"2iince we got on thii2 2hiip." Sollux snickered. Misfortune tended to spark some kind of positive response from him, much to his friends' chagrin.

"Gr8, what a waste of time!" Vriska groaned, "Now what do we do?"

") (ow about we ) (ead to t) (at island over TH-ER-E!" Feferi shot up, pointing toward a distant island. The other trolls stood up, surprised they had missed it. Eridan and Vriska used spyglasses to get a better look.

"8est idea I've heard all day." Vriska smirked.

"Agreed." Eridan nodded, "Good job, Fef."

Within a few hours - or what the trolls interpreted as hours - Eridan and Vriska set anchor and readied the dingies. Normally they'd leave a few crewmembers behind to guard the vessel, but given that it was memory, not matter, they simply gathered their friends and began rowing for shore. Eridan and Vriska couldn't help arguing at every step. Their bickering had become the theme for the trolls' adventure, though only Karkat seemed to care - which only distressed him even more.

"SO WHY ARE WE ROWING TO THE ISLAND WHEN WE COULD HAVE JUST IMAGINED A BRIDGE THERE?" Karkat grumbled, "TRYING TO RECAPTURE YOUR PASSIONATE HATRED?"

"As if!" Vriska scoffed, "Eridan might 8e an annoying idiot who couldn't tell stern from star8oard, 8ut I got over hating him sweeps ago!"

"Hey! It wwas only a feww perigees ago!" Eridan scowled, "At least, I think it wwas."

"The 8reak-up was only a few perigees ago; I said I got _over_ you sweeps ago." Vriska sneered.

"Spider-bitch." Eridan grumbled, his scowl deepening.

"I u2ually don't agree wiith KK on the2e thiing2, but hopy 2hiit - you guy2 are actually makiing me phy2iically 2iick wiith how caliigiinou2 you're beiing." Sollux cringed

"Wwe are not 8eing caliginous!" Eridan and Vriska shouted in unison again.

"It's actually pretty romantic!" Feferi chirped, "In a tween, tras) (y romance novel kind of way."

"YEAH." Karkat agreed, nodding, "TWO KISMESISES BREAK UP AND DAYS LATER DIE FROM THE VAST GLUB. POST-DEATH, THEIR HATRED IS REKINDLED. A FEW MORE PLOT DEVICES, I COULD SLAP IT ON A MOVIE POSTER AND MAKE A KILLING IN THE ROMCOM BOX OFFICE."

"Karkat, pleeeeeeeease shut up!" Vriska groaned, "Eridan and I have moved past our childish fued."

"I'll say." Eridan sniffed arrogantly, "This imbecilic excuse a a seagrift isn't wworthy a a slap in the face from one a my tarred flippers after a hard day at sea."

"Ha!" Vriska laughed indignantly, "You're not even worth of scraping the kelp scum from my 8oots!"

"Plea2e." Sollux said, rubbing his temples, "Ju2t. 2top."

Eridan and Vriska blushed and returned to rowing in silence, shooting glares at each other to pass the time. Feferi played with the water, using her hands to splash around while humming. Karkat looked off in the distant, utterly bored while Sollux stared at his mismatched shoes, brooding. Within an hour - or what felt like an hour - the trolls hit shore. Karkat walked ashore, fell to his knees and let out his pent-up irritation in a dragged out groan.

"THANK GOG. SOLID FUCKING GROUND AGAIN." Karkat said, "NO MORE OF THAT POINTLESS, WAVY SEA SHIT OR THE RIDICULOUS PIRATE JARGON YOU IDIOTS ARE OBSESSED WITH."

"Hey, pirates are cool." Vriska glared at Karkat.

"Yeah, iif you're a wriiggler." Sollux shrugged, earning a cold stare from both Eridan and Vriska.

"That's our heritage your mockin, landdwweller." Eridan warned.

"NEWSFLASH, DOUCHEBAG. THE MAJORITY OF US HERE ARE LANDDWELLERS." Karkat pointed out.

"Hey guys..." Feferi began, "W) (y are all of t) (e trees s) (aped like animals?"

The other trolls quit arguing and looked to where Feferi was pointing. All of the trees were actually a variety of Alternian shrubs, shaped into various beasts and lusi from their planet. They were all expertly sculpted and maintained. They also noticed a distinct whirring sound in the distance and climbed up the island until they reached the top of its crest. Looking below onto the valley, they saw a troll in a sunhat using a chainsaw to sculpt a shrub into what was beginning to look like a mother grub. Immediately, all of the trolls felt a sense of recognition and realized the troll was from their timeline. Before any of them could even say the name of the troll, Vriska bolted down the hill.

"Kanayaaaaaaaa!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, sprinting down the hill. It had been perigees since they had talked and Vriska was in serious need of a feelings jam with her moirail. Kanaya turned to see Vriska heading towards her and had just enough time to turn off her chainsaw, returning it to a tube of lipstick, before Vriska slammed into her for a hug.

"Vriska, What Is The Meaning Of This Wanton Display For My Affections?" Kanaya asked, grinning beside the irritation in her voice.

"Oh gog, I never thought I'd miss your meddling ass." Vriska laughed, breaking the hug and looking her moirail up and down.

"Yes, Well I've Rather Missed Your Snarky Comments And Repulsive Fashion Sense." Kanaya said, smiling the whole time. Vriska looked taken aback before returning a wicked grin.

"Maaaaaaaan, Kanaya - you have some 8urns in you, don't you?" she laughed, "First time you see your moirail in perigees and that's what you say to her?"

"Time Has No Meaning In These Bubbles." Kanaya shrugged, "You Know That, I'm Sure."

By this time, the other trolls had descended and both Karkat and Eridan were happy to see their mutual good friend. Feferi and Sollux were also happy to see another one of their friends from their timeline, even if they hadn't been particularly close to her. She invited them into her hive, offered them refreshments from memory and began the surprisingly short tale of her stay in the dream bubble.

"As You Are All Aware, I Perished In The Vast Glub - As Many Of You Had." Kanaya began, curt and articulate as always, "I Didn't Remember Much Of My Death, As I Was Still Sleeping - At Most I Simply Remember A Horrifying Nightmare That Penetrated The Sopor Slime Of My Recuperacoon - But I Digress. I Wasn't Aware Of My Demise Until I Relived A Particular Chat I Had With Sollux Several Perigees Ago Regarding Fashion."

"Oh yeah, Ii vaguely remember that." Sollux noted, "Ii wanted to know what Ii 2hould wear on a date wiith AA."

"Quite." Kanaya nodded, smiling, "I Noticed Rather Quickly That Something Was Astray And Broke The Chain Of Repitition. The Alternate Doomed Version Of Sollux - Who Came From A Timeline Where We Had Shared A Short, But Passionate, Redrom, Apparently - Told Me About Doomed Timelines, SGRUB, Aradia's Efforts To Save Our Doomed Incarnations And My Demise."

"AS WITH ALL OF US." Karkat pointed out.

"Well, I Took To The Streets Of A Dream Bubble City In Search Of Friends From My Own Timeline - Alas, There Were None." Kanaya sighed, "I Took The Oppurtunity To Explore Relationships, However."

"Relationships?" Vriska asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes." Kanaya nodded, "I Had Lost My Red Crush, So It Seemed."

"Why not ju2t date another ver2iion of her?" Sollux asked.

"Oh, That's Right." Kanaya laughed a little, "I Forgot That The Majority Of My Duplicates Had A Crush For Vriska. I'm Afraid I Do Not Share Their Interest."

"Really?" Vriska seemed surprised, "Huh..."

"No, I'm Afraid The Troll Who Had My Heart Was Gamzee Makara." Kanaya breathed out his name a little dreamily.

"WHAT?!" Karkat seemed traumatized by the idea.

"Yeah Kan, that's pretty wweird." Eridan also seemed disturbed by the idea.

"You had a crush on him, but not me?! Wh8t's wrong with meeeeeeee?" Vriska whined, a bit offended.

") (e seemed nice to me." Feferi tried to defend their friend.

"Thank You Feferi For Your Support." Kanaya ignored the others, "His Mannerisms And Appearance Were A Polar Opposite To My Own, As Was His View Of Things. He Was Something Of An Artist And A Bit More Stable In Our Timeline Than His Alpha Counterpart - The Only Version Of Him That Has Been Seen By Anyone. I Loved The One From Our Timeline, But I Had To Move On. With All The Alternate Versions Of Us, I Decided To Try Different Relationships, Trying To Find Someone To Fill The Hole In My Heart, So To Speak."

"Wwait, so wwho'd you date?" Eridan asked.

"All Of Us." Kanaya smiled, "Even Myself, A Few Times."

"ALL OF US?" Karkat asked, uneasy, "EVEN ME?"

"I Believe I Actually Dated More Karkats Than Any Other Troll." Kanaya thought about it, "Few Of Our Friends Know A Lot About Me In Any Timeline. Eridans Usually Come To Alternate Versions Of Me For Advice Or To Be The Auspistice In A Failing Romance. Vriskas Usually Come To Vent Their Frustrations, Not To Carry Their Own Weight In The Relationship. The Other Trolls Hardly Interact With Me In Most Timelines, Leaving Karkat As The Most Compatible In A Number Of Timelines. Though I Did Meet Versions Of Each Of Us That I Liked Greatly."

The other trolls were blushing awkwardly, not sure how to react to this, but Karkat spoke up first. "WOW KAN, YOU SURE HAVE CHANGED."

"Yes, Well Having My Heart Broken And Then Dating Dozens Of Versions Of Each Of My Closest Friends Would Change Most People." Kanaya smirked, "Not To Mention Being Dead."

"Touch8." Vriska crossed her arms, arching an eyebrow.

"Still, bein dead hasn't changed the rest a us much." Eridan said.

"Really?" Kanaya laughed before approaching him, "Eridan, You Have Never Acted So Friendly Before, Not To Mention The Lack Of Arrogance And Pomp." She walked over to Karkat, "Karkat Here Has Always Had Low Self-Esteem Regarding His Blood Color And Place In Alternian Society, But Here He Has Embraced The Role Of Leader Quite Well." Kanaya gave a gesture to the other trolls, "The Others Haven't Changed Much From What I've Seen, But I'm Sure In Time They Might."

") (u) (. I never reelly t) (oug) (t of ) (ow much my friends ) (ave c) (anged since dying." Feferi noted, "I've mostly been ) (appy t) (at -ERIDAN is filling ) (is quadrants!"

"Oh?" Kanaya turned on Feferi, surprised, "Our Eridan Has Been Filling Quadrants?"

"YEAH, I'M AS SURPRISED AS YOU, HONESTLY." Karkat said.

"With Whom, Might I Ask?" Kanaya asked, eyeing Vriska with some suspicion.

"Don't look at me!" Vriska shouted, "I wouldn't fill any quadrants with this loser!"

"They're totally black for each other." Sollux smirked, "They ju2t won't admiit iit."

"Shut up, Sol!" Eridan growled.

"HE'S IN A REDROM WITH NEPETA." Karkat informed his friend, "IT'S NO SECRET; HE CAN'T SHUT UP ABOUT HER MOST DAYS."

"I See." Kanaya tapped her chin, "Peculiar."

"Howw's that peculiar?" Eridan scoffed, slightly offended.

"Most Nepetas Fear Or Even Despise Most Eridans." Kanaya shrugged, "Apparently, In Other Timelines, You've Tried To Be Her Matesprit, Forcefully At Times."

"Wwell, I wwasn't forceful wwith our Nep - wwith MY Nep." Eridan said, standing straight.

"I'm Sure You Weren't." Kanaya smiled, "Like I Said, You've Become Much Kinder. It's A Quality That Stands You Apart From Your Other Doomed Selves And Your Alpha Self. It's Just That, Well, In Most Instances I've Seen, Eridans Are Either Still Searching To Fill Their Quadrants, Dating Each Other Or Hanging Onto Feferi Like Leeches."

"OH GOG, WAS THAT SEA PUN INTENTIONAL?" Karkat groaned.

"Actually, leec) (es are found more in fres) (water - ) (anging on like lampreys would ) (ave been a better sea pun." Feferi smiled, earning another groan from Karkat.

"Either Way, The Point Is Eridans In Relationships Are A Rare Occurence." Kanaya shrugged, "Especially Ones With Nepeta."

"Wwell, rare or not, it happened - and is still happenin." Eridan said with a grin.

"What Do You See In Her Anyway?" Kanaya asked. The question came as a shock to Eridan, but then the other trolls chimed in.

"Yeah, I never got what your thing for her was." Vriska nodded in thought, "You h8ed low8loods for the longest time. What's up with that?"

"AND OF ALL THE LOWBLOODS YOU COULD HAVE SUDDENLY HAD FEELINGS FOR, IT HAD TO BE HER?" Karkat asked, "I MEAN, SHE'S NICE AND ALL, BUT A LITTLE TOO... WEIRD."

"Frankly, Ii'm 2urpii2ed you rebounded from FP 2o quiickly." Sollux shrugged, "Ii mean, you loved her for how long? And then you ju2t up and fall for 2omeone el2e iin - what? - two day2?"

") (-EY! Nepeta's a nice girl!" Feferi pouted, "S) (e's friendly and fun. Perfect for Eridan!"

"Yeah, and I lovve her. So quit nitpickin her peculiarities - that's wwhat makes her unique." Eridan sniffed.

"I DON'T KNOW." Karkat shrugged, "SEEMS LIKE YOU'RE JUST TRYING TO REPLACE FEFERI WITH SOMEONE EQUALLY ANNOYING."

"Wwhat?!"

"WELL LET'S LOOK AT FACTS HERE." Karkat began, "YOU'VE SUPPOSEDLY LOVED FEFERI FOR SWEEPS, SHE REJECTS YOU AND AFTER A BOOZE-FUELED NIGHTMARE FROM YOU BEING TOO STUPID TO SLEEP IN YOUR RECUPERACCON, YOU MESSAGE NEPETA AND FALL HORNS-OVER-HEELS FOR HER? SHE'S PERKY, SHE'S TALKATIVE, SHE MAKES PUNS, SHE'S ECCENTRIC AND CARING... JUST LIKE FEFERI."

"Now that you mention it, Nepeta is a loooooooot like Feferi." Vriska laughed, "How a8out it Eridan? Still har8oring some feelings for the princess? And yes, the pun was intended."

"I-I am not usin Nep as a rebound for Fef!" Eridan shouted indignantly, blushing slightly. He hadn't actually thought about it before, but Nepeta was like Feferi in a lot of ways.

"Iit ju2t 2eem2 a liitle odd, ii2 all." Sollux said, "Do you love her? Liike, really, _really_ love her?"

"Yes!" Eridan shouted, but then stopped to think, "I mean... I think I do..."

"YOU ONLY DATED HER FOR TWO NIGHTS." Karkat sighed, "NOT ONLY THAT, BUT NEITHER OF YOU HAD SPENT ANY TIME TOGETHER OR TALKED FOR LONG BEFORE THEN."

"Oh... cod." Eridan slumped down and clutched his head, "I... I don't knoww. Maybe it wwas the heat a the moment or somethin." He turned to his moirail, eyes wide in panic, "Fef, wwhat do you think?"

"Well, you've talked about Nepeta a lot since you two were separated." Feferi smiled, but then looked away, "But... you do ) (ave a tendency to rus) ( into t) (ings and misread signals..."

"Wwe fuckin kissed! Wwhat's to misread there?!" Eridan asked, his voiced oddly high-pitched. The other trolls were feeling awkward.

"You Said Yourself That It Might Have Been The Heat Of The Moment." Kanaya offered but shook her head, "Look, It's Not Important. When You Two Meet Up Again, Simply Continue You're Relationship And Things Will Work Out The Way They're Supposed To, I'm Sure."

Eridan nodded slowly and picked himself up off the ground. He was overreacting. He loved Nepeta. He was sure of it! Then again, he was sure he loved Feferi too, and that hadn't worked out. Maybe he was just trying to replace Feferi with Nepeta. He grimaced at the idea. He found that he hardly knew anything about Nepeta in comparison with his other friends. Then another idea struck him. What if she had moved on? What if she had found a better matesprit in another one of their friends, or in a more compatible version of himself? Was it cheating if you dated an alternate time version of your matesprit? What if she had found Equius and their moirallegience evolved into something stronger? What if she had found Terezi and they had some sort of chemistry. Terezi was a wild one, of that Eridan was sure; he had no doubt she could start some sort of fling with Nepeta.

Eridan shook his head. This was stupid. He was overreacting to his friends' suspicious and gloomy outlook. Nepeta might have had a lot in common with Feferi, but they were still different people and Eridan respected the differences and loved Nepeta for them. He was sure he did, even if there was a tiny voice in the back of his head telling him what his friends had just told him.

"Are You Alright, Eridan?" Kanaya asked, some genuine concern in her voice.

Eridan nodded and offered a smile, "I'm fine. Just need to clear my head is all."

He walked to the coast and stared at the ocean for a time, not bothering to think about anything. Closing his eyes and inhaling deeply, Eridan smiled and opened his eyes again. He would find Nepeta. They would prove their love for one another. There would be no doubt in either of their minds, and they would spend their eternal afterlife in bliss with each other. Eridan pledged this to himself, even staking his family legacy on it.

He would find Nepeta.


	9. Chapter 9

Nepeta watched the coastlines eagerly and checked the ports and docks of the memory, seaside city nearly every minute of every day - not that time had any relevancy in the dream bubbles. She was certain that Eridan would be drawn to the coasts and tried to reconstruct the coastline where they met with her cave on the shore, that way it would stand out to the Eridan from her timeline. However, her hive had changed in shape and form somewhat. Tavros stayed with her, so his memories tended to merge with hers and resulted in an interesting hive and the coastline having grass sprouting here and there. When Tavros had found Terezi again, a tree had sprouted from the center of her cave. Nepeta didn't mind - whatever made her location stand out to Eridan more, the better.

"ST1LL W41T1NG OUT H3R3?" Terezi asked, sitting down next to Nepeta. Nepeta looked at her friend and smiled.

"Yeah." she said softly, "I'm worried if I go in, I'll miss him."

Terezi just laughed lightly and nodded. Nepeta noted that, of all her friends, Terezi was the most different from her doomed timeline counterparts. Apparently, through a strand of events in most timelines, Vriska had blinded Terezi and this had led to a serious change in character over her life. None of that had happened in their timeline. Aradia was kind, even tempered and adventurous and Terezi still had her sight and was still on very good terms with Vriska. She still had a mischievous streak and a strict sense of justice, but she was able to connect better with her friends and wasn't as... manic as the other Terezis. Manic wasn't the right word for it, but Nepeta really couldn't think of a better one.

"1 M1SS K4RKL3S. 1 HOP3 H3'S W1TH F1NF4C3." Terezi smirked.

"I'm sure Ampurra isn't alone." Nepeta shrugged, "After all, I found a furiend purrety quickly. He probably did the same."

"PROB4BLY."

They sat there for a bit before Tavros walked out. Like all the trolls from their session, he hadn't gotten wrapped up in the infamous FLARP event that had crippled him, blinded Terezi, mutilated Vriska and killed Aradia. Surprisingly, he was actually less confident than his doomed duplicates. Without the SGRUB adventure, Tavros hadn't really tapped into his potential and tended to think little of himself. He was, to Nepeta's enjoyment, building his self-confidence and becoming a stronger individual. He stuttered less, walked taller and could maintain eye contact.

On the subject of differences from the alpha timeline and the majority of doomed timelines, Nepeta noticed that she differed from her own duplicates. She was older and thus more mature than most of them, though she still maintained most of the same interests. It was weird for her to watch herself: hyperactive, obsessed with romantic pairings among friends, judgemental of pairings and even wrathful at times when unexpected shippings occurred. It was all rather embarrassing and Nepeta felt a glimmer of shame at times, but she didn't bother changing anything about herself because of it. After all, it was still her.

"wHAT ARE YOU LADIES TALKING ABOUT?" Tavros approached them, smiling.

"HOW MUCH W3 M1SS OUR R3SP3CT1V3 1D1OTS." Terezi sighed.

"Purrety much." Nepeta agreed.

"hUH. yEAH, i WISH i KNEW HOW THAT FELT." Tavros offered a sympathetic grin, "bUT i, UH, DON'T. nOT REALLY."

"It's alright, Tavros." Nepeta smiled, "How did the hunt go?"

Tavros had taken it upon himself to go out and search for their friends while Nepeta watched the shores and Terezi... kept to her own devices. Tavros had made as much progress as the rest of them, which is to say, no progress whatsoever. Still, like Nepeta, he wasn't giving up anytime soon. Nepeta would ask him how the hunt had gone, knowing full well it was fruitless - after all, if Tavros had found one of their friends, it would be the first thing he'd mention. This time, however, it appeared he did have news.

"i DIDN'T FIND ANY FRIENDS FROM OUR TIMELINE, BUT i DID FIND SOMEONE WHO MIGHT BE ABLE TO HELP." Tavros beamed, earning questioning stares from the two girls.

"R34LLY?" Terezi asked, "WHO, PR4Y T3LL, WOULD TH4T B3?"

"hE'S eRIDAN!" Tavros laughed a little, "uM, ONE OF THE OTHER DOOMED TIMELINES. hE'S KIND OF AN ASS. mORE SO THAN USUAL, ACTUALLY..."

"This doesn't sound very purromising..." Nepeta frowned.

"nO, THIS GUY'S GREAT! iF i COULD ONLY REMEMBER WHAT HE SAID, YOU'D AGREE WITH ME." Tavros tried to reassure his friend, "hE'S WAITING OUT FRONT. sHOULD i GO GET HIM?"

"1 DON'T S33 WHY NOT." Terezi shrugged. Nepeta nodded her consent, albeit reluctantly.

Tavros disappeared around the oddly merged hive. When he returned, he had a particularly odd Eridan in tow. He wore his Orphaner Dualscar roleplaying coat, which was odd for most doomed Eridans. Beneath this he wore his usual attire, but what made him stand out was the fact his scarf was around his face, covering his eyes like a blindfold. Three horrid, though healed, gashes were clear on his face, reaching from his forehead above his scarf to his chin, his lips brutalized from whatever attack crippled him in life. He made a sniffing motion and scowled, pointed teeth bared in distaste.

"I smell one a them fuckin olivve-blooded, cavve-dwwellin autistic catgirls in my midst." the doomed Eridan growled, "You didn't say anythin about one a _her_ bein here, Tavv."

"uH... yOU DIDN'T ASK."

"I shouldn't havve to!" Eridan barked, "You knoww damn wwell I hate her! I only say it about evvery other sentence!"

"THIS is the guy you brought to solve our purroblems?!" Nepeta shouted.

"uM..." Tavros blanked.

"WOW. 1 4CTU4LLY M1SS TH3 OLD 3R1D4N." Terezi laughed.

"Wwell, I guess I can't be too mad." Eridan's anger seemed to subside a little, "At least a doomed vversion a my moirail's here."

"3W." Terezi cringed.

"Say wwhat you wwill, Rezi, but in my timeline wwe wwere paler than a albino lusi's nook." Eridan grinned viciously, his scarred features playing out more vividly, "Noww, Tavv here says you all need help locatin your Eridan?"

"Yes please." Nepeta smiled. Eridan grunted.

"I'm assumin you're from one a those timelines wwhere you an I fell in lovve?" he asked, sneering a little.

"Not that it's any of your business, but yes." Nepeta huffed.

"It is my business because, one: I am Eridan FUCKIN Ampora, and doomed duplicates or not, I havve a right to knoww howw I livved in other timelines because it is MY FUCKIN LIFE." Eridan barked out, startling the other trolls, "Twwo: you hired me, so if I ask for information, you damn wwell better givve it to me, lowwblood. It'll make our job easier. Understood?"

The other trolls stood around awkwardly before mumbling their acknowledgements.

"Alright then." Eridan sniffed, "The best wway to find a troll is to think like that troll, an since I AM that troll, wwe should havve no problem findin him."

"Oh, I never thought to use another Ampurra to find our Ampurra!" Nepeta facepalmed, wondering how she missed an obvious solution like that.

"Of course you didn't." Eridan laughed bitterly, "Another thing: quit usin cat puns and don't say "Ampurra" in my presence. It pisses me off somethin fierce."

"WH4T DO YOU H4V3 4G41NST N3P3T4?" Terezi asked, irritated at the poor treatment of her friend. Eridan stopped and glared, without eyes, at Terezi.

"I knoww that about ninety-fuckin-nine percent a the Nepetas in the universe are kind an friendly an all that hoofbeast shit, but my timeline's Nepeta wwas a cold, hard bitch." Eridan seethed, "She cut my face up an left me for dead in a FLARP, after breakin up wwith me cause I wwas "too soft" to be her kismesis."

"WOW." Terezi's eyebrows arched in surprise, "TH4T SUCKS."

"Yeah, then there wwas a wwhole bunch a other shit, but let's not get into that." Eridan shook his head, "Wwe're here to find your Eridan, not talk about my shitty life."

"Right. So what do we do first?" Nepeta asked, avoiding cat puns.

"Wwell, normally wwe'd be shit out a luck, seein as howw there's no stable topography to wwork off a." Eridan said, before pulling out a map and grinning wolfishly, "But fortunately for all a you - an all my other customers - I havve a wway a trackin other Eridans. A sixth sense, if you wwill."

"rEALLY?" Tavros asked, surprised, "hOW, UH, DOES THAT WORK EXACTLY?"

"Wwell, to the best a my scientific experiments and wwhat not, I'vve determined it's a trait vvirtually nonexistant in all other Eridans. Basically, I'm a mutant freak wwith a uncommon psychic ability not found in other seadwwellers." Eridan explained, growing angrier with every word, "Probably howw Kar an I got together."

"YOU... 4ND K4RK4T?" Terezi asked with a mixture of disgust and disbelief, "R34LLY?"

"Yes, reelly!" Eridan growled, "Wwhy wwould I lie about somethin like that?"

"Moving on, please." Nepeta smiled tensely. She was excited that her Eridan was in her grasp, but upset that her friends and the new Eridan kept getting sidetracked with meaningless arguments.

"Ooo, you're a bit more testy than the other Neps." Eridan sneered, "Let's get dowwn to business."

Eridan stood still, resting the fingertips of his hands against his temples and focusing with his eyes closed. His lips twitched every now and then, his teeth showing on occasion, bared and grinding in pain. As Nepeta watched in concern, she saw violet rivulets leaking from beneath the scarf and down the Eridan's face, but they were too full to be tears. With a chill, she realized Eridan was crying blood. With a gasp, Eridan's back went ramrod straight before he collapsed to his knees, struggling for breath. Tavros and Nepeta rushed to his aide while Terezi stood back, disturbed yet awed.

"Are you alright?" Nepeta asked.

"I'm fine!" Eridan shoved her off and ripped his arm out of Tavros' grasp, standing on his own, though nearly toppling over again. "I'vve located your Eridan. He's in that direction, quite a wways awway." Eridan gestured in a direction out in the open sea with exact measurement.

"hOW DO YOU KNOW FOR SURE?" Tavros asked.

"My powwers alloww me to enter the mind a other Eridans for a short time." Eridan explained, "Apparently, I'm the only one a us that has that gift. It only wworks on other Eridans, though, an not the alpha vversion. It's also extremely painful, so I don't do it unless there's a good rewward."

"TH4T POW3R ST1NKS." Terezi grinned, "1'D 4SK FOR A R3FUND, 1F 1 W3R3 YOU."

"Wait, what about a reward?" Nepeta asked, surprised.

"Wwhat? Tavv didn't tell you?" Eridan asked, "I require payment for my servvices."

"P4YM3NT? W1TH WH4T? W3'R3 D34D, 3R1D4N."

"Dead, yes, but not wwithout certain... servvices that can be rendered in return." the Eridan grinned, "You massage my horn, I massage yours sort a arrangement."

"So what do you want." Nepeta eyed the Eridan cautiously.

"Wwhen I played SGRUB in life, I talked extensivvely wwith one a the humans, an intelligent talkativve bitch wwith a nasty case a human sarcasm." Eridan began, "Hated her guts; snarky, dreww all the attention a Kan, used fraudulent magics, an wwouldn't shut up. She wwas, howwevver, a Seer a Light."

"S33R OF L1GHT?" Terezi asked.

"Yeah, that's wwhat I said." Eridan snorted, "Anywway, wwhat that means is she had powwers - in my timeline, at least, she had reached God Tier an unlocked those powwers - the powwers to see the most fruituitous path to take. Evven though wwe hated each other, she took pity on me after Nep dumped me an scarred my face up, so she showwed me the path that wwould be best for me. Though I'm dead an miserable, there's still a happy endin here for me yet."

"wHICH IS..?" Tavros asked, not sure why the Eridan was putting it off so much.

"None a you givve a flyin fuck about my past or howw radically different evverythin wwas from your timline, do you?" Eridan deadpanned, before growling, "Our Sollux wwas a female, for cod's sake!"

"WH4T DO YOU W4NT, F1SH-F4C3?" Terezi sighed.

"I wwant you to take me wwith you." Eridan snapped, "Somethin's supposed to happen later on that wwill lead to my most fruitful destiny, an you guys are my ticket there or somethin."

"yOU DON'T SOUND TO SURE." Tavros pointed out.

"Oh, an you're the expert on that, aren't you?" Eridan scoffed.

"Alright, fine, we'll take you with us." Nepeta said, earning concerned stares from her friends, "But you have to be nice to us, and that includes me! So if I want to call you "Ampurra", I will. Got it?" Nepeta got in Eridan's face, even though he was blind and at least a head taller than her.

"Fine." he huffed out, rancid fish breath bearing down on the catgirl. She didn't mind, however - fish was a favorite meal of hers, and her lusus used to have it all the time. Without warning, Eridan began to lead the way towards their Eridan's location, a ship materializing out of the air and resting in the water. "Come on, you landdwwellin sods."

The other trolls followed with some reluctance. They had stayed in the same spot for some time, so to leave was like leaving a home, but all three were committed to finding their friends. They boarded the vessel, which took flight immediately in the direction Eridan had directed. There were no pirate theatrics, no roleplaying - just seriousness and business. Eridan stood at the bow, mentally directing the vessel from memory. It required no psychic power, just some imagination in how it was remembered. He simply remembered the ship heading in a direction, and it headed in that direction. He couldn't fathom why other Eridans and Vriskas actually made crews for their ships other than to fulfill some wriggler roleplaying fantasy.

The voyage gave the other trolls plenty of time for small talk or thinking. While Eridan guided the vessel from memory, trying to connect with his doomed clone, the others chatted idly about varying things. Normally, there wasn't much to discuss since they had stayed stationary for so long, but sometimes Tavros or Terezi had a funny story from when they had gone out into the droves of doomed duplicates in search of friends from their timeline.

"Wwe're almost there." Eridan said after a few hours of sailing, "I can see the island noww."

"Island?" Nepeta asked, heading towards the bow of the ship.

"WH4T 4R3 TH3Y DO1NG ON 4N 1SL4ND?" Terezi asked, confused.

"If I knoww Eridan - an I damn wwell should - he wwas probably sailin around wwithout any guidance, mistakin the qualities of the seas as genuine instead a imagined memory shit." Eridan explained.

"SOUNDS R1GHT." Terezi snickered, earning a quick glare from Nepeta.

"sO... eRIDAN JUST MAROONED HIMSELF?" Tavros asked, "tHAT DOESN'T SOUND LIKELY."

"Maybe he got distracted." Eridan shrugged, "It hardly matters."

"hEY, UH, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO CALL YOU? lIKE, AFTER WE GET OUR eRIDAN BACK, BECAUSE THEN THERE WILL BE TWO OF YOU."

"I hadn't really thought a that." Eridan tapped his chin, slightly embarrassed.

"I've got it!" Nepeta said after some thought, "We'll call you Dualscar!"

"My old FLARP title?" Eridan cringed, "I havven't FLARPed since my Nep gavve me these scars an broke my spades."

"If it gives you too many painful mempurries, you don't have to use it." Nepeta frowned, sad that she had upset a friend.

"No, it's fine." Eridan sighed, "Kind a feels appropriate anywway, givven my current distinguishin marks an all."

"Exactly!" Nepeta exclaimed happily, oblivious to the scowling violet-blood.

"sO, HOW MUCH LONGER, UM... dUALSCAR?" Tavros asked.

"Soon, Tavv." Eridan growled over his shoulder.

Nepeta, Terezi and Tavros approached the bow and looked over Eridan's shoulder. The island was very dominating in size at this point and Terezi felt a sudden sinking sensation while the other two gawked. She had played enough FLARP games with Vriska to have picked up bits and pieces of maritime knowledge.

"3R1D4N?" Terezi began, "4R3N'T W3 G3TT1NG 4 L1TTL3 TOO CLOS3?"

"I'm not goin to bring out dingies so wwe can roww to the fuckin shore." Eridan barked, "I'm just goin to run the ship aground an keep goin."

The other trolls all exchanged nervous looks, "Can you do that?" Nepeta asked.

"Wwell, wwe're about to find out." Eridan chuckled, a bit too darkly for the other trolls' comfort.

Within seconds they hit the bottom of the bay, the crash sending Tavros and Terezi to the deck - Eridan had experience on rough waters and Nepeta was very well-balanced. Soon the ship was out of the water all together and travelling across the beach. Nepeta was surprised by this. Terezi and Tavros picked themselves up off the decking and joined Nepeta in her amazement.

"How is this even pawsible?" Nepeta asked, wide-eyed as she looked over the side to see that they were, indeed, travelling across the sand.

"This is memory-stuff, Nep." Eridan scoffed, "I'm just doin as I remember."

"YOU R3M3MB3R S41L1NG 4CROSS L4ND?" Terezi quirked an eyebrow, clearly not believing him.

"It wwas from that movvie: The Sequel in Wwhich the Captain a Vvarious Romanticized Seagrifts is Deserted at the End a the Wworld and Must Return; the Series' Romance Continues to Havve Its ups an Dowwns; the Male in Said Romance Finds the Father He Thought Wwas Dead; the-"

"Oh yeah, I remempurr that movie!" Nepeta clasped her hands together before staring off, dreamily, "Troll Johnny Depp is so amazing..."

"1 R3M3B3R TH4T MOV13, TOO." Terezi smiled, "BUT W4SN'T THE SH1P H34D1NG OUT TO S34, NOT FROM S34?"

As soon as she had remembered it, the vessel reshaped itself and where the trolls had been standing at the bow, they were now at the stern, the ship pointing towards the coastline and heading for that direction. Eridan growled in irritation as Tavros and Nepeta groaned. Terezi shrugged in apology.

"Fuck it! I'm done here!" Eridan shouted, jumping overboard and rolling across the sand to aborb the impact of his fall.

The other trolls reluctantly followed. Eridan led them up the shore and through a forest of topiary. The strange part of this land - beside all of the trees shaped like animals - was the fact it was sunny out. Most trolls preferred the dark, so it was easy to guess which of their friends called the island home. Then again, it could be one of any number of hemo-swapped trolls from doomed timelines, as well. At this point, every doomed troll had found at least one duplicate of themselves who had different blood color than usual: a teal-blooded Eridan here, a gold-blooded Nepeta there, a mutant-blooded Terezi, a fuchsia-blooded Tavros... The list was endless.

All the trolls made it to the hive easily enough. "Dualscar" simply slammed the door open without knocking and the others followed him inside, albeit with some reluctance. The hive was nice and serene with open windows and light colors - odd for a troll, but comfortable to the eyes. Fabric and sewing equipment were everywhere, but at the same time parts of the hive were parts of other hives, signalling that more than one troll was present - the flooring went from tile to wooden planks smelling of saltwater, while a bookshelf seemed to meld into a set of honeycombs dripping with mind honey.

A few minutes of walking and the trolls found their companions having tea and talking with Kanaya. Immediately Nepeta's eyes fell on her Eridan and they rushed towards each other and embraced. Terezi and Karkat almost repeated the same spectacle, but slowed themselves and exchanged their trademark facial expressions: Terezi, grinning mischievously and Karkat scowling in annoyance.

"Oh cod, Nep!" Eridan said exclaimed, hugging Nepeta and spinning with her, "I'vve missed you so much!"

"H33h33!" Nepeta giggled, wrapping her arms around Eridan's shoulders with joy, "I've missed you too, Ampurra!" They kissed for a moment.

"CUT THAT OUT. YOU GUYS ARE MAKING ME SICK WITH ALL YOUR SLOPPY MAKEOUTS." Karkat gagged before turning his attention to Terezi who was still grinning at him, "WHAT THE HELL TOOK YOU FUCKASSES SO LONG?"

"OH K4RKL3S, NO 'H3LLO'?" Terezi cackled and Karkat covered his ears.

"GOG, I HAD FORGOTTEN HOW UNBEARABLY ANNOYING THE SOUND OF YOUR LAUGHTER IS. IT'S LIKE A PLIGHT FROM WHATEVER HORRORTERRORS CURSED ME TO BE A PART OF THIS MISERABLE POST-DEATH EXISTENCE, TRAPPED WITH ALL OF YOU CHUTE-STUFFING FUCKERS." Karkat ranted, "SERIOUSLY, THOUGH, WHERE WERE ALL OF YOU? I WAS STUCK AT SEA WITH THESE DUMBASSES FOR PERIGEES LOOKING FOR YOU."

"wE WERE LOOKING FOR YOU GUYS." Tavros explained, "kIND OF, UH, SURPRISING HOW WE DIDN'T RUN INTO EACH OTHER..."

"Wow, nearly two whole sentences without stuttering." Vriska smirked, "I'm allllllllmost impressed, Toreadork."

"i MISSED YOU TOO, vRISKA." Tavros deadpanned, earning a laugh from Vriska.

"Now Please, All Of You, Behave Yourselves." Kanaya chided gently with a smile.

"Ii take iit AA wa2n't wiith you guy2?" Sollux sighed, but then arched in eyebrow in curiosity, "Why the fuck do you have another ED wiith you?"

The trolls all turned to the other Eridan, while their Eridan sized him up with a mixture of curiosity and horror. Feferi was likewise shaken by the scarred state of her moirail, even if it was one from an alternate timeline. Karkat and Kanaya were unphased, having seen numerous duplicates of each troll in various conditions. Vriska didn't really care, but she was sizing the other Eridan up.

"Wwhat the fuck happened to my face?" Eridan finally asked.

"A little troll named Nep is wwhat happened." the other Eridan growled.

") (oly MACK-ER-EL!" Feferi's eyes widened.

"i FIND IT HARD TO BELIEVE THAT nEPETA WOULD DO THAT TO YOU..." Tavros said.

"Oh my gog..." the alternate Eridan facepalmed, "No, you twwits! _My_ timeline's Nep did this to me!"

"NO SHIT." Karkat said, "IT'S STILL HARD TO BELIEVE. ALL THE NEPETAS I'VE SEEN ARE WAY TOO NICE."

"Wwell, mine wwasn't, obvviously." Eridan bared his teeth.

"So, w) (at do we call you..?" Feferi asked, eyeing the other Eridan, "It'll get confushing if we call bot) ( of you -ERIDAN, and it would be mean to call you Eridan 2..."

"W3 4CTU4LLY 4LR34DY THOUGHT OF TH4T." Terezi said, "W3'R3 C4LL1NG H1M DU4LSC4R."

"Dualscar?" Vriska scoffed, "Why am I not surprised?"

"I havve to say, it fits." Eridan admitted reluctantly - he didn't like to see someone else holding his ancestor's title, even if it was just another him.

"SO WHY'S DUALSCAR HERE ANYWAY?" Karkat asked the question on most of their minds.

"hE CAN TRACK OTHER eRIDANS WITH HIS MIND." Tavros smiled.

"That'2 iimpo22iible." Sollux's brow furrowed, "He'd have two be 2ome kiind of p2iioniic for that."

"I am, unfortunately." Dualscar said bitterly, "Apparently I'm a... mutant."

"SO?" Karkat asked, "NONE OF US CARE."

"I care." Dualscar snapped back, "Anywway, the only reason I joined you guys wwas because a friend a mine told me followwin you wwould revveal my happy endin."

"Happy Ending?" Kanaya asked, curious.

"Apparently, Aradia set up the dream bubbles to make all the ghosts happy, either by findin lovve or findin purpose or some other fuckin outcome." Dualscar explained, "An, also apparent, I'm supposed to followw you to do it."

"I'm Not So Sure There Is A Happy Ending Out There For All Of Us." Kanaya sighed.

"KANAYA, JUST GET OVER HIM ALREADY." Karkat groaned, "FIND SOME OTHER SOPOR-ADDICTED, CLOWN-WORSHIPPING ASSHOLE TO LOVE."

"Alright, alright." Vriska said, earning the others' attention, "So what do we do now?"

"I say we s) (ould find the rest of our fronds!" Feferi suggested with a large smile.

"Agr33d!" Nepeta said and Eridan followed.

"SURE, WHY NOT?" Karkat sighed, tired of always being on the move, "NOT LIKE THERE'S ANYTHING ELSE TO DO IN THIS PLACE."

The others gave their ascent and headed out the door. Karkat, somehow, ended up in the front of the group with Terezi close behind and Dualscar not far behind either of them. The others followed in a close cluster, catching up on old times with their friends. Nepeta and Eridan held hands and couldn't quit leaving little pecks on each other's necks and cheeks, much to the chagrin of their friends. Even Sollux, the only one of their friends from this timeline that was in a stable relationship - besides Eridan and Nepeta now, of course - was disturbed. Had he always been like this with Aradia?

"Wwhere to, Kar?" Dualscar asked.

"I DON'T KNOW. LET'S JUST GET TO ONE OF THE CITIES." Karkat shrugged, "ARADIA AND EQUIUS ARE PROBABLY SEARCHING THERE."

"Yee2h, Ii wonder iif they've even met up yet." Sollux winced at the thought, "And iif they have, how long diid they 2tay together before 2pliitiing up agaiin. Equiiu2 ii2n't too fond of u2 "pea2antblood2"."

"Oh, Equius isn't that bad." Nepeta tried to defend her moirail, but she knew Sollux was probably right.

So the trolls headed back to the city from whence they came in search of their last two missing friends, since there only appeared to be one Gamzee. Eridan and Nepeta were content and happy, Karkat and Terezi were back to bickering, and Vriska had her moirail and the target of her torment back. Sollux and Kanaya were still dealing with their missed loved ones and Dualscar still searched for his "happy ending".

It would be a long walk to the city.


	10. Chapter 10

They had been in the city for what could only roughly translate as a perigee. One by one, each of the trolls had quit bothering to record the time in their heads. There was no sunrise, no sunset, so measuring time fell to clocks and watches that relied on memory, and memories found time tedious and unneccesary. The trolls of the memory-bubble city had formed a small, semi-efficient government - an incredible feat, given that it was run by hordes of youths. Each timeline in the city had been given a designation for identification and given an expanse of "land" to have as their own. Those trolls that were without the majority of their group or alone altogether were put into a territory called the Outcast. The system was largely ineffective, since territory was meangingless and most doomed timelines had at least one unstable relationship between friends, but a governing regime had been established and enforced, so no one argued with it; plus there was a large, neutral territory in the center of the dream bubble that allowed for mingling and trolls to find the rest of the friends from their timeline.

The trolls of Universe 3,905 had put in a request to keep an Eridan Ampora from another universe (one designate 2,500,178) in their territory. The "government" - if it could be called such - responded with an "I DON'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK, HONESTLY" from the Emperor, Karkat Vantas (from Universe 397). This extra Eridan Ampora, going by the alias "Dualscar" to keep from confusing him with his Universe 3,905 counterpart, was thankful for this, not wanting to return to the group from his timeline. Barring the extra Eridan, the trolls of 3,905 were nearly complete - all they were missing was Aradia and Equius, and technically Gamzee, but no timeline seemed to have their Gamzee.

Eridan and Nepeta had their own private hive together - a cave with fine furnishings next to a body of saltwater surrounded by jungle. They frequently stalked the jungles or went for boat rides, or just relaxed in their hive. They were an interesting pair, one of the most uncommon in the city, so it was told. Some of their qualities had begun to rub off on each other: Eridan quit wearing his cape since it kept getting snagged in the jungle and became more accustomed to hikes and getting dirty, which made him more humble and less of an "intolerant, hipster douche"; Nepeta began taking care of her appearance more, making sure to clean up, but Eridan assured her that she was beautiful the way she was.

Other things that changed were less visual and more in personality: Eridan was kinder and let his eccentric side get the better of his usually cold and agitated demeanor, while Nepeta gleaned bits of historical and scientific knowledge and could keep up with Equius in conversations better - both changes in personality were welcomed by their friends. By far, however, it was their speech that had changed the most. Eridan began using cat puns unintentionally and rolling his 'r's without realizing it, while Nepeta could be caught trembling her 'w's and mispronouncing her 'v's on occasion.

At the moment, they were laying down on the beach outside of their hive, looking at the clouds that they shaped with their memories. In the treeline, Terezi's hive could be seen - she had decided to save space and create her treehouse hive in Eridan and Nepeta's jungle. Since the territory was small, most of the trolls shared hives, and Terezi had forced Karkat into staying with her, much the same as Vriska had forced Tavros into staying with her. Kanaya and Feferi had agreed on having a joint hive, since they had similar-enough tastes, and wound up taking in the bitter Dualscar and the lovesick Sollux as well.

"That one looks like a cat." Nepeta smiled.

"The last six looked like cats, Nep." Eridan smirked.

"H33h33, I knoww. I mean, "know"." Nepeta corrected her slup, earning a chuckle from Eridan. He liked it when she mimicked his accent, even if on accident - it was endearing, "If it doesn't look like a cat to you, what does it look like?"

"Hmm." Eridan pondered, trying to avoid shaping the cloud with his thoughts. Smiling, he answered, "A beautiful catgirl." he said, moving closer to Nepeta and nuzzling her cheek. He had stressed the 'r', making it come out as a purring noise, but whether he did it as an unconcious habit or on purpose, even he wasn't sure.

Nepeta purred as Eridan's lips danced lightly along her cheek and neck, breaking into shorts bursts of giggles when his fins tickled her. She had never imagined, even when she had fantasies of her and Karkat, that life (or rather post-life) could be this good. Nepeta was certain her love for Eridan was of the purest red, burning brighter and warmer than any other. That thought made her feel bad for a moment and she stopped Eridan, gently pushing him away and sitting up.

"Wwhat's wwrong, Nep?" he asked, his eyes filled with a mixture of worry and sadness.

"Nothing that you did." she smiled reassuringly, then looked at the ground, "I just feel bad."

"Wwhy?"

"When we wwere... When we _were_ sepawated, I had a moment where I wondered if you were just a rebound fur Karkat." Nepeta confessed, her face heating up in shame. Eridan looked surprised, but not angry or sad.

"I havve to confess somethin to you too, Nep." Eridan sighed, "Wwhen wwe wwere separated, the same thin happened to me, too. A course, all a our friends pointed out you an Fef are a lot alike, but wwhen I saww you wwalk through Kan's door, I kneww it wwas you I lovved, an no one else."

"Oh, Eridan! You're so sappy sometimes." Nepeta tightly embraced her matesprit, fighting back olive tears.

"Blame Kar." Eridan laughed, "He's been gettin me into romcoms as some sort a "relationship trainin" or some other such hoofbeast shit."

"You two are goin to make me regurgitate my lunch or somethin." the other Eridan said bitterly and both Eridan and Nepeta looked up, startled by his sudden appearance. Standing before them was another Eridan, but wearing his scarf over his eyes as a makeshift blindfold and with two long scars running down his face. "Evverytime I see myself wwith that bitch - evven if your Nep ain't a bitch - it makes my blood boil."

"Wwhy don't you go bother Kar or Rezi?" Eridan asked, clearly irritated. At first, having a doomed timeline duplicate of one's self was interesting; asking what the point of divergence was in their lives, how everyone had turned out, if things were better or worse, etc., etc. After two weeks with "Dualscar", Eridan came to hate his anti-Nepeta attitude, his self-agrandizing attitude - so common with Eridans, apparently - and his overall bitterness.

"I think there's some sort a chemistry there, an they're not my Kar or Rezi anywway." Dualscar grunted.

Eridan always internally cringed at the mention of counterpart's timeline and regretted ever asking about it. In most timelines, the Alpha Version included, there had been a debacle between Tavros and Aradia's FLARP team and Terezi and Vriska's FLARP team that ended with Tavros being paralyzed, Aradia being killed, Terezi being blinded and Vriska being maimed. In Dualscar's universe, the debacle had been much the same, but Equius had died early on, leaving their Nepeta scarred and sparking another debalce later on that left their Eridan blind, Karkat dead and Nepeta manic. With so many casualties, the session was doomed from the offset.

"All the same, Dual, this is my Nep an I'd appreciate it if you'd treat her nicely." Eridan glared at his duplicate, knowing full well that he could use his "blind sight" to detect the disapproving expression.

"Yeah, alright." Dualscar sighed reluctantly, "Sorry Nep."

"No purroblem." Nepeta smiled.

"So, not that I don't _lovve_ seein myself evveryday," Eridan said sarcastically, "But wwhat do you wwant?"

"There's a rumor goin around the city that our ancestors are in another dream bubble." Dualscar said nonchalantly. Immediately Nepeta and Eridan sat up.

"Wwhat?!" Eridan asked.

"Yeah, but they're younger vversions." Dualscar said, "Some timey-wwhimey garbage or some such nonesense. Evveryone's up an movvin out to the neww bubble to meet their ancestors."

"You mean I could meet my ancestpurr?" Nepeta's mouth was agape, "Like, face-to-face?"

"Are you deaf?" Dualscar asked, irritated, "I only said it twwice."

"Eridan, we should go!" Nepeta beamed, "I've nefur really heard much about my ancestor, and you love yours!"

"I _idolize_ my ancestor!" Eridan grinned, "Let's get the others together an head out there."

"I doubt they're reelly out there." Dualscar scoffed, "I wwas only mentionin it because a all the free land wwe can seize."

"Why bother with that?" Nepeta snorted, "It's not like there aren't a million other dream bubbles to take."

"Wwell, fuck you, that's wwhy." Dualscar growled indignantly, face heated in embarrassment.

"Come on, Nep, let's tell the others an get ready to leavve." Eridan grabbed Nepeta's hand and they raced towards Terezi's hive first, leaving Dualscar alone.

"It's probably just a hoax, you idiots!" Dualscar shouted after them before being left by his lonesome to simmer. "Wwhy do I havve to be so stupid." he muttered about his alternate self.

"Beclaws you were always so stupid." a voice purred from an above branch. Dualscar flinched and was floored by a body landing on him, "So stupid and _weak_."

"Oh swwell." he muttered into the dirt before lifting his head, "I thought I smelled your lowwblood filth around here, Nep."

The troll on Dualscar's back grinned wickedly. It was a Nepeta from a doomed timeline, but she only barely resembled the Nepetas every other timeline had become used to. Her hair was even more poorly kept and she was absolutely filthy with dirt and blood stains, her clothing threadbare, bandaged and patched up or altogether torn. Her face was scarred from numerous hunts and vicious FLARP battles, and several of her teeth were missing. There was no cat cosplay gear, and her claws were large, double-razors that retracted into the leather bracers/gloves that she wore. Dualscar remembered the dual-razors very well, since they had blinded him to effectively when they were younger.

"Oh, poor pathetic Ampurra." she giggled madly, "Or is it Dualscar again?"

"Wwhat do you wwant, you psychotic bitch?!" Dualscar shouted before getting his face slammed into the ground, nearly shattering his glasses.

"Is that anyway to talk to the only purrson who can help you find your purrecious Karkitty?" Nepeta hissed into his ear, rubbing his face into the dirt. Dualscar lifted his head, coughing.

"You're lyin!"

"I can assure you, I am not lion." Nepeta grinned and Dualscar cursed himself for setting up such an obvious cat pun. "I found you, so what makes you think I can't track our Karkitty?"

"_Our_ Karkitty?" Dualscar asked, "I mean Karkat, damnit."

"Yes, _our_ Karkitty. I'm willing to share him." before Dualscar could question her sanity again, she continued, "I know I haven't been the nicest mempurr of our little group-"

"That's the understatment a the fuckin century." Dualscar muttered, earning another slam into the dirt.

"-But after I found our timeline's Equius, we rekindled our lost meowrallegience and he pointed out some of my... flaws." Nepeta's eye twitched, "I tried not to beat him too badly, but it hurts to accept when one had a purroblem."

"And you two are still together?" Dualscar asked, genuinely surprised Equius would cave so easily.

"Of course!" Nepeta laughed, "He's only fur sweeps old! I'm the only furiend he has, really."

"You vvile bit-" Dualscar began before getting slammed into the dirt again.

"Please quit talking until I'm finished." Nepeta grinned, "Anyway, I've turned a new leaf and want to make ammends with my old friends, and I figured I'd start with you. We could share Karkitty!"

"Howw in the flyin fuck does that wwork?" Dualscar moaned, a little dizzy from getting his face slammed into the ground so many times, "A matespritship is betwween twwo trolls that lovve each other, not some psycho cat bitch that got one killed an left the other one for dead!"

"I'll furget you said that." Nepeta gave a forced smile, "Now let's get back to the matter at paw: do you want to know where Karkat is, or not?" Dualscar was silent for a moment. "What? Cat got your tongue." Nepeta smirked, "I knew you were blind and dumb, but I didn't know you were a mute too. I thought that was more of Sollux's thing..."

"Fine." Dualscar sighed.

"I couldn't hear that."

"I said, fine! Wwhat do you wwant..?" Dualscar admitted defeat - he missed Karkat more than anyone of his old friends.

"I want you to start treating my like royalty fur one." Nepeta purred, "And for two, I want you to have me tag along with your new friends to meet our ancestpurrs."

"Wwhy?" Dualscar was surprised by the request.

"Why do you care?" Nepeta hissed, before regaining her poise and getting off of Dualscar's back, "It's purrsonal, mostly, but I want to see how different our ancestors are from efurryone else's. Why, don't you?"

"Not particularly." Dualscar shrugged, getting off the ground and fixing his glasses, "Wwhat does it matter, anywway?"

"Oh, poor Ampurra." Nepeta pouted, gently stroking Dualscar's cheek, "You used to fantasize about meeting your idol. What happened?"

"A bitch cut my eyes out an left me for dead wwhile I wwas pretendin to be my idol in some wwrigler scenario." Dualscar growled but quickly stopped when Nepeta latched onto one of his gills and gently tugged.

"Refer to your queen as a bitch again, Ampurra, and the gill comes off." Nepeta said calmly, smiling the whole time. Dualscar nodded slowly, terror showing on his face. She released him.

"That reminds me, wwhat am I supposed to be callin you noww?" Dualscar asked, massaging his gill, "I mean, wwe already havve a Nepeta in the group, so wwhat should I call you?"

"You will call me your queen, just like when you used to grovel at the feet of Fefurry." Nepeta instructed, "Understood?"

"Yeah." Dualscar huffed, then noticed Nepeta glaring expectantly, "...My Queen."

"I like seeing you so humiliated." Nepeta confessed, "It makes me eager to find Karkitty."

"Dare I ask wwhy..?" Dualscar said with some fear.

"All in due time, Ampurra. All in due time." Nepeta laughed and Dualscar noticed several other trolls approach.

Terezi and Vriska were excited, and Kanaya and Tavros were certainly happy with the proposition of meeting their ancestors. Feferi knew she couldn't meet her ancestor, since their fuchsia blood would spark a heated duel to the death for dominance, and she wasn't one for killing. Sollux hoped Aradia would be there since everyone seemed to be headed that way. Karkat was the only one not dancing with joy, because he personally didn't want to be confronted with his ancestor, confronted with his mutant blood. Even after the collapse of Alternian society, it bothered him. Even though a Karkat Vantas was the "Emperor" of their dream bubble, it bothered him.

"WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT MEETING OUR ANCESTORS, ANYWAY?" Karkat asked.

"Surely You Could Understand Why We Would Want To Meet Our Genetic Sires?" Kanaya asked, "I For One Am Interested In Finding Out What Kind Of Person My Ancestor Was; It Might Help Me Learn More About Myself."

"KANAYA, YOU'RE YOUR OWN PERSON." Karkat said, "WHOEVER YOUR ANCESTOR WAS OR IS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT."

"COM3 ON K4RKL3S, 4R3N'T YOU TH3 L34ST B1T 1NT3R3ST3D 1N M33T1NG YOUR 4NC3STOR?" Terezi cackled, "M4YB3 H3 W4S 4 K1NG?"

"SOMEHOW I DOUBT THAT." Karkat deadpanned.

"It's not like we ) (ave anyfin better to do, Karkat." Feferi pointed out, "Anywave, I'm S) (OR-E you'll like your ancestor!"

"WHATEVER, LET'S JUST GET GOING BEFORE I CHANGE MY MIND AND STAY HERE, THEN HAVE TO SPEND ANOTHER FUCKING SWEEP'S WORTH OF TIME LOOKING FOR YOU IDIOTS." Karkat sighed.

Dualscar entered with several other trolls in tow, earning all of the attention in the room. There was himself, his timeline's Nepeta, a young and skittish looking Equius, a female Sollux and a panicked Karkat in a straitjacket. This new group earned horrified, questioning stares from the other trolls.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE THESE NEW ASSHOLES AND WHY AM I IN A STRAITJACKET?" Karkat asked.

"Guys, these are the... friends from my timeline." Dualscar said, pausing in consideration of using "friends" to describe his entourage. Sollux, Nepeta and Karkat reluctantly stepped closer to get better looks at their duplicates.

"You look like you've been through something pawful." Nepeta commented on the mangy state of her duplicate.

"And you look quite pampurred." the other Nepeta seethed, but maintained an overly-friendly smile.

"Why the fuck am Ii a giirl?" Sollux asked. His duplicate began making strange hand gestures, "Ii don't know what you're doiing, 2o 2top iit."

"JEGUS FUCK, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO ME..?" Karkat muttered under his breath. His duplicate looked starved, frantic and - above all else - furious, but a muzzle around his mouth kept whatever he was ranting to a dark mumbling. Karkat reached to unfasten it, but the other Nepeta stopped him.

"If you'd like to keep your fingers, I wouln't do that." the Nepeta smiled and Karkat felt unsettled by it.

"Let'2 get goiing before any other unwelcome 2urprii2e2 pop up." Sollux suggested.

Without any other words, all the trolls from both universes filed out and into the dream bubble. Already, large portions of the bubble were empty and bare, only filled with trace memories and minor thoughts. The trolls of the dream bubble had been leaving in a mass exodus towards the bubbles inhabited by their ancestors. The few that showed no interest in their ancestors followed anyway, either because they had grown accustomed to the company of billions of doomed friends, or because they had nothing better to do. Even with all the trolls leaving, a few thousand still remained behind, caring neither for their ancestors or the company of billions of fellow dead.

"So w) (at do we call you guys?" Feferi asked the other doomed trolls not from her session, "Since W-E don't want to get mixed up, or anyfin."

"Call me Leijon." the mangier of the Nepeta's suggested, "And we refur to our Catpurr as "Braceface"."

"2o Ii diid get tho2e brace2 iin your diimen2iion." Sollux said, "Why can't Ii talk, though?"

"It's best not to ask to many questions, Sol." Dualscar noted, bitterly. Sollux glared, but shut up.

"And What Are We To Refer To Your Karkat As?" Kanaya asked, looking the crazed duplicate of her good friend up and down.

"It doesn't matter." Leijon shrugged.

"He wwon't respond to any name evver since wwhat happened to him." Dualscar shrugged, and Leijon gave him a threatening glare that made his mouth shut quickly. Even blind, he could sense the malevolence in her glare.

"WHAT HAPPENED?" Karkat asked.

"Nothin. Nothin at all." Dualscar said hurriedly. Karkat eyed him a little more before turning around in a huff.

"What about your Equius?" Nepeta asked. She had practically latched herself to the childish duplicate of Equius, missing her moirail deeply and finding his younger self cute, "What do we call him?"

"How about "L'iil Eq"?" Sollux snickered and his female duplicate joined in.

"I LIK-E it!" Feferi chimed.

"Ii wa2 kiiddiing-" Sollux tried to say, but he was drowned out by Nepeta and Feferi gushing over the younger Equius.

As for the younger Equius, he wore a typical nobleman's shirt and pantaloons, but they were showing stress marks and rips where his STRONG physique had damaged them in the simplest of everyday tasks. His black glasses were in fairly-good condition, but in the right light one could see the beginning of hairline cracks. His hair was well-kept and in a ponytail and his teeth were largely intact. Nepeta had forgotten how much her moirail had changed as his strength became too much for maintaining his noble appearance. The younger Equius was, at the moment, being hugged and patted by the much more mature Nepeta and Feferi; the maturity of which was causing him to sweat profusely. Eridan scowled, a little jealous that both his matesprit and his moirail were doting over the child blueblood.

"Not to be a sour-puss or nothin," Eridan made sure to use a cat pun to help grab Nepeta's attention, "But wwe shouldn't be stayin put, pettin the kid all day. Look, you're gettin him all wworked up, too."

"I-I think I might require a towel." L'il Eq stuttered out, his cheeks a deep indigo.

"O) (, ) (is accent is just ADORABL-E!" Feferi giggled.

"Adorabull?" L'il Eq repeated, blushing more.

"GOG, JUST LET HIM GO BEFORE HE PASSES OUT OR SOMETHING." Karkat ordered and both Nepeta and Feferi reluctantly released him.

"OH, COM3 ON, K4RKL3S!" Terezi smirked, suddenly appearing at his shoulder, "4DM1T 1T; H3 _1S_ 4DOR4BULL!"

"QUIT CACKLING IN MY EAR!" Karkat growled and moved to the front of the group, "NOW LET'S GET MOVING. I DON'T WANT TO TAKE ANOTHER FUCKING LIFETIME TO GET TO THIS SHITTY, RUMORED DREAM BUBBLE TO MEET SOME FUCKASS ANCESTORS OF OURS."

"I miss wwhen Kar wwas that grumpy in our univverse." Dualscar sighed to himself, but only the other Eridan heard him and gulped at the implication. Clearly, Karkat had not always been manic in that dimension and Eridan was wary of the unspoken event that left so many of their doppelgangers from the other timeline crippled so.

The trip would be largely uneventful as the trolls from both universes traversed the bubble in their own cluster, a bit behind the overall swarm of their duplicates. It felt long and tedious, but of course time had long lost its meaning and eventually the trolls grew bored with being bored and created games to play with each other while travelling. Anything to pass the time. They grew closer, but even so, they tended to stay separate from their alternate universe friends - something about their Nepeta put everyone on edge.

There was just something suspicious about all of them.

**Yeah, this chapter isn't doing too good. There is a plot, lol, don't worry.**


End file.
